Serena and Andy set sights on Aussie Open bid
ANDY Murray and Serena Williams are set to play at the Australian Open in January, according to tournament director Craig Tiley.
British No.1 Murray, 30, has not played since July when a hip injury hampered him in a quarter-final defeat at Wimbledon, while Williams, 36, gave birth to her first child in September.
The pair could be joined by Novak Djokovic and Stan Wawrinka, added Tiley.
“All the top players will be back in Melbourne,” he said.
Former World No.1 Djokovic has been sidelined since suffering an elbow injury at Wimbledon, while Wawrinka and Kei Nishikori have been out since the summer with respective knee and wrist problems.
“I can tell you that in talking to Andy (above), he has been training and he is preparing for having a great year in 2018,” Tiley said.
“How much would this year have hurt him, to watch over the entire year Roger (Federer) and Rafa (Nadal) share four Grand Slam titles — he would not have liked that.
“As competitive as Andy is, we know he’s back and he’ll want to improve his current ranking of number three in the world and getting back to number one.”
Nick Kyrgios courted controversy again at the Shanghai Masters by retiring after losing the first set of his opening-round match against Steve Johnson.
The Australian was banned for showing a lack of effort and arguing with the umpire and fans during a second-round loss to Mischa Zverev at the same tournament 12 months ago. Kyrgios did not appear injured and did not seek medical help before abruptly pulling the plug after Johnson claimed the first set 7-5 on a tie-break.
Both the American and umpire Fergus Murphy were bemused by Kyrgios’ sudden retirement, which he later blamed on a stomach bug.
The 22-year-old cut a distracted and grumpy figure throughout and complained about Mur- phy several times. When he was given a point penalty during the tie-break for an audible obscenity, having previously received a warning for angrily smashing two balls out of court, Kyrgios was heard saying he would quit if he lost the tie-break.
Explaining his decision, which drew boos from the crowd, Kyrgios wrote on Twitter: “I’ve been battling a stomach bug for the last 24 hours and I tried to be ready but I was really struggling on the court today, which I think was pretty evident from the first point.”
Seventh seed Pablo Carreno Busta was beaten in the second round 7-5 7-5 by fellow Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas, while 15th seed Lucas Pouille fell 7-6 (9/7) 6-3 to Fabio Fognini.
Fourth seed Marin Cilic reached round three with a 6-3 7-6 (7/5) victory over Britain’s Kyle Edmund and was joined by Juan Martin del Potro and US Open finalist Kevin Anderson.
John Isner saved a match point in beating Dusan Lajovic, but Denis Shapovalov’s first match as a top-50 player did not go to plan, the Canadian teenager losing 6-7 (3/7) 6-3 6-0 to Viktor Troicki.