Tennis stars raise millions for Australian wildfire victims
Cabrera completes 2nd upset in 2 days at Hobart WTA event
MELBOURNE, Australia, Jan 15, (AP): A capacity crowd of more than 15,000 at Rod Laver Arena watched Roger Federer defeat Nick Kyrgios in a one-set finale to the Australian Open’s Rally for Relief to aid wildfire charities on Wednesday.
Tennis Australia said the night helped raise nearly 5 million Australian dollars ($3.5 million) for the victims of recent and ongoing fires in Australia that have killed 28 people and destroyed several thousands homes, most of them in New South Wales and Victoria states.
Smoke haze from the continuing fires has played havoc with scheduling of the first two days of qualifying at Melbourne Park, delaying play by several hours and prompting complaints from players over the air quality.
Other players who took part included Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams, Caroline Wozniacki and Alexander Zverev. On several occasions, volunteer fire personnel were invited on the court to play against the tennis stars.
The fund-raising efforts, which includes various amounts for aces served during the tournament and the sale of merchandise donated by players, will continue when the Australian Open begins on Monday.
Australia’s Lizette Cabrera is into the Hobart International quarter-finals after completing a second come-frombehind upset in two days.
The 22-year-old Cabrera beat world No. 62 Kristyna Pliskova 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 on Wednesday in just over two hours.
“That felt amazing. I was getting really nervous towards the end of the third set but super happy I got the win,” she said. “For me, it was just about staying calm and trusting I could beat her.” Cabrera also came from a set down to beat former world No. 4 Caroline Garcia in the opening round.
Rain halted play in the afternoon but not before American Lauren Davis and fifth-seeded Veronika Kudermetova advanced to the quarter-finals. Kudermetova beat American Catherine Bellis 7-6 (6), 6-1 and Davis defeated sixth-seeded Magda Linette 6-4, 6-4.
Two-time champion John Isner beat defending champion Tennys Sandgren 7-6 (3), 6-7 (1), 6-3 Wednesday in an all-American second round match as the ASB Classic.
Cabrera
The only previous meeting between the pair, in Stockholm in 2018, went to three tie-breaks. Fourth-seeded Isner finally bucked that trend when achieved the first service break of the match in the fifth game of the third set and went to win the set in 28 minutes.
“Of course I’m happy about that,” Isner said. “It’s always a tough match playing Tennys. He does a lot of things really, really well on the court and when he and I match up it’s inevitably going to be close and that was the case today.
“I’ve very happy to get through and get through in somewhat comfortable fashion.” Isner won the tournament in 2010 – his first ATP title – and again in 2014 for his only tournament wins outside the United States. While he has returned regularly, the last few years have not been as kind.
“I’ve always been a pretty slow starter so I’m very happy to win this match today,” he said. “I’ve lost my first match here the last three years I think. So I’ve bucked that trend in 2020 and I’m very happy about I hope I can play better tomorrow.” The day didn’t start well for Sandgren. Because the Auckland tournament is being held a week later than usual the points Sandgren won last year, and which he would have defended, have expired and he dropped 33 ranking spots to No. 101.
But he started the match stronger than Isner. The 20th-ranked Isner was expected to dominate on serve but it was Sandgren whose serve was more formidable in the first set: he won his first two service games to love and dropped only three points on serve before the set went to a tiebreak.
A medical emergency in the bleachers caused a 10-minute delay before the tiebreaker began and Sandgren appeared to lose momentum. He double faulted on the first point and couldn’t recover, conceding the set.
He still looked out of form at the start of the second set, going to five deuces before winning his first service game while Isner held comfortably, steadily increasing his tally of aces.
The set again went to a tiebreak in which Sandgren was suddenly dominant, winning 7-1 to level the match.
Isner finally won a service break in the fifth game of the second set after a pivotal rally which lasted 26 shots, the longest of the match. He broke again in the ninth game to seal the match in 2-1/4 hours.
From left: Roger Federer of Switzerland, Nick Kyrgios of Australia, Naomi Osaka of Japan, Alexander Zverev of Germany, Dominic Thiem of Austria, Serena Williams of the United States, Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark, Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic, Coco Gauff of the United States, Novak Djokovic of Serbia, Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece and Rafael Nadal of Spain pose for a photo during the Rally For Relief at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne on Jan
15. Tennis stars have come together for the Rally For Relief to raise money in aid of the bushfire relief efforts across Australia. (AP)