Sharapova stumbles at times but advances
Hewitt’s dream of winning major in home country ends on 20th try
MELBOURNE, Australia — Maria Sharapova played two nearly flawless sets on either side of the one in which she struggled against American Lauren Davis in a slight hiccup at the Australian Open.
Sharapova, who won the title here in 2008 and has lost three finals, including last year to Serena Williams, advanced to the fourth round with a 6-1, 6-7 (5), 6-1 on Friday for her 600th tour-level match win.
“Wow. I’ve won 600 matches?” Sharapova asked, responding to a question in an on-court interview. “Is this like a friendly reminder that I’m getting old? Might be.”
The 28-year-old five-time major winner is playing her 13th Australian Open since 2003, so she knew what to expect when she lost concentration in the second set despite being up a break and 30-love.
“You know you’re in a Grand Slam environment, third round and against an opponent you haven’t played … that’s fired up and is not going to just give you the match, and that’s exactly what happened,” she said. “I am quite happy that I was able to step up in the third set. That was very important.”
The fifth-seeded Sharapova advances to play No. 12 Belinda Bencic, who won the opening match at Rod Laver Arena 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 against Kateryna Bondarenko.
Kei Nishikori had some trouble with his wrist, taking a medical timeout and losing the next set before recovering to reach the fourth round on the men’s side with a 7-5, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 win over No. 26-seeded Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.
Fifteenth-seeded David Goffin beat No. 19 Dominic Thiem 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (2), 7-5 — his first win against a top-20 player at a Grand Slam — to reach the fourth round at Melbourne for the first time. He faces a tougher proposition next — against either Roger Federer or Grigor Dimitrov.
None of Friday’s early matches was as noteworthy as Thursday night’s final pairing at Rod Laver Arena involving Australian favorite son Lleyton Hewitt.
Hewitt’s 20th bid to win the major in his home country ended in a 6-2, 6-4, 6-4 second-round loss to the eighth-seeded David Ferrer — Hewitt’s last singles match as a pro.
“Left nothing in the locker room. That’s something I can be proud of,” Hewitt, who turns 35 next month, told the crowd. “My whole career, I’ve given 100 percent.”
Nobody would argue with that. Before Federer won the first of his record 17 Grand Slam titles, at Wimbledon in 2003, Hewitt had won the 2001 U.S. Open and Wimbledon in 2002. They were roughly the same age. Hewitt was the youngest man to hold the No. 1 ranking at 20 years, 8 months in November 2001.
Federer said Hewitt helped revolutionize the sport.
“Yeah, possibly,” Hewitt replied in a matter-of-fact response when Federer’s assessment was mentioned. “I guess guys playing from the back of the court obviously started believing once they saw that I was able to do it, especially on all surfaces.”
The so-called Big Four — Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray — have become dominant, while Hewitt struggled with hip and foot injuries and increasingly reduced his workload to the point the Grand Slam tournaments and the majors were his only real focus.
Murray, who has won two majors and the Davis Cup and reached four finals at the Australian Open, said he learned a lot about tennis by watching Hewitt.
After his 6-0, 6-4, 6-1 second-round win over Sam Groth extended his unbeaten streak against Australians to 17, Murray paid tribute to Hewitt.
“He was someone I loved watching growing up. His attitude toward competition — I loved,” Murray said. “He fought — well, fights — extremely hard to this day. He still has the same passion to win. He was an idol for me. I actually named one of my dogs after him because he was someone that I loved growing up.”