Djokovic, Serena move into 3rd round
American Frances Tiafoe threw everything he could, but World No.1 Novak Djokovic of Serbia came up trumps 6-3, 6-7(3), 7-6(2), 6-3 in an Australian Open second round clash here on Wednesday.
Djokovic did not have it easy against Tiafoe, who pulled the Rod Laver Arena crowd into the contest. “It was a very tough match in difficult conditions. I want to give a hand to Frances for a very tough fight. He played a fantastic match on his part,” said Djokovic.
Austrian Dominic Thiem, who lost the final here last year to Djokovic, eased through the second round with a 6-4, 6-0, 6-2 win over Donimik Koepfer of Germany. Three-time major winner Stan Wawrinka (Switzerland) wasted a big lead in the fifth-set tie-break and three match points before losing 5-7, 1-6, 6-4, 6-2, 6-7 (9) to Marton Fucsovics from Hungary.
Later, German Alexander Zverev registered a straight-set 7-5, 6-4, 6-3 win over American Maxime Cressy. In women’s singles, Serena Williams of the USA kept her bid for a 24th Grand Slam title on track as she swept Nina Stojanovic (Serbia) 6-3, 6-0. But a 21st trip to Melbourne Park ended painfully for Venus Williams, who lost 1-6, 0-6 to Italian Sara Errani.
Second seed Simona Halep (Romania) survived a scare to beat local player Alja Tomljanovic 4-6, 6-4, 7-5 in two hours and 34 minutes. Canadian Bianca Andreescu, coming back from an injury after 15 months, went down 3-6, 2-6 to veteran Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan.
Petra Kvitova (Czech Republic) lost 4-6, 6-1, 1-6 to Sorana Cirstea of Romania while Spaniard Garbine Muguruza defeated Russian Liudmila Samsonova 6-3, 6-1.
Bopanna and his partner bow out
India endured a second successive disappointing result at the Australian Open with Rohan Bopanna and Ben McLachlan bowing out after a close opening-round defeat to Ji Sung Nam and Min-Kyu Song in the men’s doubles event. Bopanna and his Japanese partner lost 4-6, 6-7(0) to the Korean wildcard pair.