Serena ousted by 27th-seeded Wang
Williams’ bid for 24th Slam crown put on hold again
MELBOURNE, Australia — Serena Williams lost to China’s Qiang Wang in the third round in Day 5 of the Australian Open.
The seven-time Australian Open champion was down a set and a break and Wang was serving for victory in the second set before Williams broke back and leveled the match after dominating the tiebreaker.
Williams was serving to stay in the match when Wang broke her to clinch a 6-4, 6-7 (2), 7-5 victory.
In their only previous meeting, Williams beat Wang, 6-1, 6-0, in 44 minutes in the 2019 U.S. Open quarterfinals.
Williams’ bid for a her 24th Grand Slam title to equal Margaret Court’s alltime record will have to wait. She has lost the Wimbledon and U.S. Open finals in 2018 and 2019 and hasn’t added to her collection of majors since her title at Melbourne Park in 2017.
The top-ranked women’s player in the world was the first one into the fourth round .
French Open champion and local hope Ash Barty beat 29th-seeded Elena Rybakina, 6-3, 6-2, in the opening match at Rod Laver Arena.
Barty next will play Peters Township’s Alison Riske or Julia Goerges of Germany. Riske’s match was overnight.
After a disruptive day weather-wise a day earlier, mostly sunny skies returned to Melbourne Park.
Love him or hate him — and make no mistake, there are plenty in each camp — Nick Kyrgios never allows for a dull moment when he’s on a tennis court, whether it’s shot selection, showmanship, momentum swings, barking at his entourage or mocking another player not even involved in the match at hand.
All of the above happened on Day 5 in his evereventful 6-2, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 victory over Gilles Simon.
That included a moment when Kyrgios — currently on six months of probation from the ATP for verbally abusing tennis officials — poked fun at the man he might meet in the fourth round, Rafael Nadal. After being warned for taking more than the allotted 25 seconds between serves, Kyrgios mimicked how Nadal fidgets before a point, as if to remind the chair umpire that there are folks who more egregiously waste time.
When a reporter asked Nadal about Kyrgios’ imitation of the 19-time major champion, the Spaniard replied: “I really don’t care. I’m here to play tennis.”
About the only boring segment of the proceedings came in the in-stadium interview, when an allusion was made to later rounds and Kyrgios, an Australian seeded 23rd, told the Melbourne Arena crowd, “I’m not thinking ahead . ... I’m just taking it one match at a time at the moment.” Zzzzzzzz.
After Kyrgios wrapped up, No. 1-seeded Nadal still was in the early stages of what became a 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-1 win against Federico Delbonis at Rod Laver Arena.
Those results were the most intriguing of at the year’s first Grand Slam tournament, especially given the distaste Kyrgios and Nadal have for each other in a raucous rivalry that provided one of the highlights of Wimbledon in 2019.
Riske and doubles partner Veronika Kudermetova of Russia won their first-round match. They defeated China’s Shuai Peng and Shuai Zhang, 6-3, 6-3, on Court 11.