Nadal advances as dodgy back holds up
MELBOURNE: Rafael Nadal showed no signs of a back problem that hampered his preparation for the year’s first major as he beat Serbian No 56 Laslo Djere 63, 64, 61 in just under two hours at the Australian Open yesterday.
Nadal did not play for Spain at the ATP Cup last week and was troubled by stiffness in his lower back during practice.
“Well, it’s been a tough 15 days for me. I had some issues with the back,” the 34yearold Spaniard said in his postmatch interview.
“I needed to survive today. That’s what I did. Straight sets — that’s what I need.”
While Nadal has been slowly building into the tournament, Russia’s ATP Cupwinning teammates have been on a roll.
Fourthseeded Daniil Medvedev extended his winning streak to 15 matches with a 62, 62, 64 win over Vasek Pospisil and seventhseeded Andrey Rublev beat Yannick Hanfmann 63, 63, 64.
Defending champion Sofia Kenin struggled in her first match as a defending champion at a Grand Slam tournament before setting aside an early deficit and beating 133rdranked Australian wildcard entry Maddison Inglis 75, 64.
The woman Kenin beat for the title in Melbourne, twotime major champion Garbine Muguruza, also advanced to the second round, beating Margarita Gasparyan, of Russia, 64, 60.
But Victoria Azarenka, a twotime Australian Open champion and the runnerup at last year’s US Open, appeared to have trouble breathing and received medical attention in the second set of a 75, 64 loss to Jessica Pegula, of the US.
Paula Badosa also lost in the first round after going through a threeweek isolation because she tested positive for Covid19. Badosa served for the match but dropped the last four games and was beaten 67 (4), 76 (4), 75 by Russian qualifier Liudmila Samsonova.
In other results on day two, Australian wildcard entry Alexei Popyrin beat No 13 David Goffin 36, 64, 67 (4), 76,(6), 63 and 17yearold Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz had a 61, 64, 64 win over Botic Van de Zandschulp.
And an even younger player, 16yearold Coco Gauff, won 63, 62 against Jil Teichmann to set up a secondround showdown against No 5 seed Elina Svitolina.
A seeded woman exited the tournament when Ann Li, a 20yearold American playing in her third Grand Slam tournament, beat No 31 Zhang Shuai 62, 60 to improve to 50 this season.
Li is coming off an unusual accomplishment at a tuneup tournament at Melbourne Park last week: Li shared the title of the Grampians Trophy with Anett Kontaveit because organisers decided not to hold a final so as not to wear out the players right before the Australian Open.
That warmup event was created for players who were in a hard lockdown last month. — AP