Zverev silences home crowd to enter Aus Open 3rd round
MELBOURNE: Alexander Zverev defied a boisterous crowd to storm into the third round of the Australian Open on Wednesday, bombarding home hope John Millman in straight sets with his blistering power game.
The German world number three, who is still looking to win his first Grand Slam, overpowered the 89th-ranked Millman with his back-court big hitting and searing serves to dominate their night match 6-4, 6-4, 6-0 in just under two hours on Rod Laver Arena.
It set up an encounter with Moldova’s Radu Albot on Friday and was a sizzling statement of title intent.
“Amazing atmosphere, hopefully it will stay the same and get even louder for the next few matches,” Zverev, the Olympic champion, said before the noisy centre court crowd.
“I am prepared that everybody will hate me after the match, that’s my mindset and hopefully I will get a lot of boos, hopefully everybody will cheer against me.. I’m just kidding.
“I’ve said over the past two years since Covid started that sports need the atmosphere, sports need the people.
“It doesn’t matter if you are for me or against me, I enjoy the atmosphere, I enjoy the noise, I enjoy being on court.”
Zverev, who reached the semifinals in Melbourne in 2020, is bidding for his first Grand Slam title after losing to Dominic Thiem in the US Open final later that year.
He could be on course for a box-office quarter-final showdown with 20-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal.
It was an awesome performance from Zverev, blasting 14 aces, 37 winners and winning 85 percent of his first serve points. He broke the Australian’s serve six times.
Millman simply had no answer to Zverev’s boom hitting and lost the final set to love.
It was a significant step up in form by Zverev from his opening round win over fellow German Daniel Altmaier.
Zverev crowned his 2021 season with the Olympic singles gold medal in Tokyo and also beat world number two Daniil Medvedev in the ATP Tour Finals in Turin.
With the deportation of ninetime winner Novak Djokovic on the eve of the Australian Open, the men’s draw has opened up.
Zverev is among the leading contenders along with Medvedev, fourth-seeded Greek Sefanos Tsitsipas and Nadal.
Osaka all smiles
Naomi Osaka said she drew on past experience in a composed beating of Madison Brengle on Wednesday to move closer to a blockbuster Australian Open clash with top seed Ashleigh Barty.
The Japanese 13th seed and defending champion raced through the first set but had to work hard in the second on Rod Laver Arena before eliminating the 54th-ranked American 6-0, 6-4 in 65 minutes to make the third round. “I remember when
I was younger, I would watch her play in the pro circuit, and she was kind of notorious for getting every ball back,” she said of Brengle.
“So I just kind of took those memories from back then and tried to tell myself, you’re probably going to make a lot of unforced errors this match, but it’s something you have to do because you can’t let her dictate you in this match in the way that she would try to, like, keep the ball in play.
“For me, I feel like it was really important that even though I made a lot of errors at the net today, I thought it was really important to keep stepping in.”
Osaka will meet another unseeded American next after Amanda Anisimova upset Tokyo
Olympic champion and 22nd seed Belinda Bencic 6-2, 7-5.
Anisimova is on a sevenmatch win streak after claiming the Melbourne Summer Set title in the build-up to the Grand Slam and should pose a sterner test. But if Osaka can win she faces the prospect of a mouthwatering fourth-round battle with world number one and Wimbledon champion Barty, who has dropped just three games so far and looks in ominous touch. The pair could meet early due to Osaka’s seeding -her lowest at a Slam since the 2018 US Open -- after a truncated 2021 when she took time out to deal with mental health issues.
“I’m just trying to take it one day at a time,” she insisted. “The goal for me is just to have fun and I’m really grateful to my team because I feel we are accomplishing that.”
The four-time Grand Slam champion, who has won two of the past three Australian Opens, wasted little energy on Brengle in the first set. She immediately broke to take control and raced through in just 20 minutes, with her opponent hitting zero winners and managing just 10 points.
Laughing and smiling on court, Osaka held serve to open the second set before Brengle won a huge round of applause by finally getting on the scoreboard for 1-1.
It lifted the American and Osaka faced a harder fight, with her unforced error count mounting.
But the Japanese star regrouped to secure the win.