CORNET STUNS MUGURUZA
MELBOURNE, Australia
The surprises started early with the first matches at the Australian Open on Thursday (Australia time). No. 3 seed Garbine Muguruza became the highest-seeded player to exit at Melbourne Park, just minutes after No. 6 Anett Kontaveit lost.
Muguruza never managed to earn a single break point and made a whopping 33 unforced errors, more than twice her opponent’s total, in a 6-3, 6-3 defeat against Alize Cornet in the second round under a bright blue and cloudless sky at Rod Laver Arena.
“A little bit surprised about my level. I am a little disappointed, too,” said Muguruza, who won the season-ending WTA Finals in 2021. “I feel like my shots weren’t as accurate and precise. I feel, also, my aggressive game wasn’t that aggressive today.”
Here’s how unexpected that result was: Muguruza is a two-time Grand Slam champion and a two-time major runner-up, too, including making it to the final at the Australian Open in 2020.
And the 61st-ranked Cornet? She’s appearing in her 63rd career major tournament — and 60th in a row — but never has been beyond the fourth round.
Cornet will get a chance to equal that showing when she plays Saturday on what will be the Frenchwoman’s 32nd birthday.
She called herself “a little bit (of ) a dinosaur.”
“I don’t know how many years I have left,” Cornet said. “Today was a perfect gift I could give myself and I really hope the journey’s going to go even farther for me.”
Muguruza said she didn’t feel at her best physically and noted that the start of this season was “kind of stressful,” because COVID-19 spread through her support team and she was apart from them for two weeks.
Kontaveit, who lost to Muguruza in the title match at the WTA Finals, was beaten 6-2, 6-3 by 19-year-old Clara
Tauson of Denmark.
Other women advancing included second-seeded Aryna Sabalenka shaking off 18 double-faults to beat Wang Xinyu 1-6, 6-4, 6-2, No. 7 Iga Swiatek, the 2020 French Open champion, who defeated Rebecca Peterson 6-2, 6-2, and No. 31 Marketa Vondrousova, the 2019 runner-up at Roland Garros, who beat Liudmila Samsonova 6-2, 7-5.
Winners among the men included No. 5 Andrey Rublev and 2014 U.S. Open champion Marin Cilic. No. 24 Dan Evans moved on when the player he was supposed to face in the second round, Arthur Rinderknech, pulled out with an injured wrist.
Late Tuesday (San Diego time), Naomi Osaka’s rediscovered
love of the game meant it was anything but fun for Madison Brengle.
The defending champion conceded only four points in the first four games and rifled forehand winners seemingly at will as she breezed to 6-0 in a mere 20 minutes.
The second set started with Brengle celebrating a service hold like she’d finished a longdistance race, but gradually the No. 54-ranked American’s keep-the-ball-in-play strategy ground down Osaka to a stage where she finally converted a break-point opportunity — after missing her first nine chances.
That triggered a change in the former No. 1-ranked Osaka, who responded by breaking back immediately and reeling off the last nine points to complete a 6-0, 6-4 victory. She finished with 37 winners and 32 unforced errors.
Osaka will next face Amanda Anisimova, a 20-yearold American who beat Olympic gold medalist Belinda Bencic 6-2, 7-5. The winner of
that is likely to face top-ranked Ash Barty in the fourth round.
Rafael Nadal didn’t get it all his own way in the subsequent match on Rod Laver Arena, needing five match points before beating 126th-ranked German qualifier Yannick Hanfmann 6-2, 6-3, 6-4.
Olympic gold medalist Alexander Zverev, Wimbledon finalist Matteo Berrettini, No. 17 Gael Monfils and No. 23 Reilly Opelka advanced in straight sets.
In two marathon five-setters, No. 14 Denis Shapovalov held off Kwon Soon-woo 7-6 (6), 6-7 (3), 6-7 (6), 7-5, 6-2 in 4 hours, 25 minutes on Margaret Court Arena, and Sebastian Korda edged Corentin Moutet 3-6, 6-4, 6-7 (2), 7-5, 7-6 (6) in 4:47.
In the women’s draw, French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova set up a third-round match against No. 26 Jelena Ostapenko, advancing along with No. 5 Maria Sakkari, No. 8 Paula Badosa and No. 15 Elina Svitolina, who next plays two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka.