No. 1 Djokovic dominates Open
MELBOURNE, Australia – No. 1 seeds Novak Djokovic and Simona Halep both made it to the second round of the Australian Open on Tuesday, despite a scare for the topranked female player.
Halep pulled back from a set down to claim her opening match against Kaia Kanepi 6-7 (7-2), 6-4, 6-4 – sweet revenge after Halep was ousted from the first round of the US Open last year by the 71st ranked Estonian.
“I don’t want to remember about that match because it was a bad one,” said Halep in an on-court interview, adding that she would take a lot of confidence from the match.
“I knew what I had to play against, I knew that she was a tough opponent. I had to be strong on the legs and believe that I could win the match. It was good for me tonight and I’m really happy that I got into the second round.”
Djokovic, meanwhile, waltzed into the second round with a 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 victory over American qualifier Mitchell Krueger on Melbourne Park’s Rod Laver Arena in just over two hours.
Djokovic now faces Frenchman Jo-wilfried Tsonga, whom he defeated in the 2008 final for his first Grand Slam title.
“I have a tremendous respect for Jo … We played here in our first Grand Slam final back in 2008, 11 years ago and we’re going to face each other again hopefully on this court and I really, really look forward to it,” Djokovic said.
In the morning session, Serena Williams and Alexander Zverev coasted through their first rounds with straight-set victories over Tatjana Maria and Aljaz Bedene, respectively.
Williams, who sported an eye-catching jade green jumpsuit, was clinical in her 6-0, 6-2 dismantling of Maria, making just 11 unforced errors to the German’s 20 and allowing Maria a mere five points in the first set.
The 2017 champion, who is seeking a 24th Grand Slam singles title to tie for the record with Margaret Court, sat out last year’s competition after giving birth to her first child.
Her victory two years ago was “literally the best win of my career so it’s exciting to get back,” the 37-year-old 16th seed said in a post-match interview.
Zverev then cruised to a 6-4, 6-1, 6-4 win over Slovenian world No. 67 Bedene.
Though he went down a break in the first set, the 21-year-old German, who won the ATP Finals in November, looked dominant.
In other matches, U.S. Open champion Naomi Osaka pulled off a comfortable 6-4, 6-2 victory against Poland’s world No. 80 Magda Linette.
Karolina Pliskova, who got her 2019 season off to a winning start by clinching the title at the Brisbane International, polished off qualifier and Czech compatriot Karolina Muchova 6-3, 6-2.
And Venus Williams, who is competing in her 19th Australian Open, won a marathon 6-7 (3-7), 7-6 (7-3), 6-2 over Romanian 25th seed Mihaela Buzarnescu.