Serena, Osaka drawn in same half of Aus Open

MELBOURNE: Majors are what matter at this stage for Serena Williams. After agreeing on Friday to the notion that she could consider her next Grand Slam title to be her favourite, she withdrew from a scheduled semi-final match against topranked Ash Barty in a tuneup event—citing an injured right shoulder—not long after the draw for the Australian Open was made.

For her latest bid to equal Margaret Court’s all-time record of 24 Grand Slam singles titles, Williams was drawn in the same quarter as secondranked Simona Halep and the same half as No.3 Naomi Osaka, the US Open champion.

Osaka will face Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the first round and has major champions Angelique Kerber, Garbine Muguruza, Venus Williams and Bianca Andreescu in her quarter.

“I saw the projected draw and actually I’m kind of excited,” said Osaka, who has a 2-1 record against Serena Williams, including a memorable major breakthrough in the 2018 US Open final. “I like playing tough people, especially in Slams.”

Defending champion Sofia Kenin is in the top half of the women’s draw along with Barty, and they could potentially meet in the semi-finals again. Twotime Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka, Johanna Konta and Elina Svitolina are also in Kenin’s quarter.

First up for Williams will be Laura Siegemund of Germany, and that could be either Monday or Tuesday depending on how the schedule is worked out.

Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal are also chasing records.

The second-ranked Nadal, aiming to win a men’s record 21st major singles title will open against Laslo Djere and could face fifth-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas

in the quarter-finals.

In the top half, Djokovic’s bid for a third consecutive Australian title—and ninth overall— could get tricky. The top-ranked Serb has an opener against Jerome Chardy and three-time major champion Stan Wawrinka, Milos Raonic and Alexander Zverev are in his quarter.

Djokovic and Zverev were playing against each other in an ATP Cup doubles match when the draw was made. Djokovic had just edged Zverev in the second singles match to pull defending champions Serbia level at 1-1 with Germany. Zverev rebounded to guide Germany into the semi-finals by winning the doubles encounter. Germany will meet Russia in the last four with Spain to take on Italy.

World No.1 Barty needed a super tiebreaker to beat Shelby Rogers 7-5, 2-6, 10-4 in her quarter-final at the Yarra Valley Classic. Since Williams pulled out, Barty has progressed to the final. In the other half, Muguruza dumped Kenin with a 6-2, 6-2 win and will next play Marketa Vondrousova.

At the Gippsland Trophy, world No.2 Simona Halep suffered a surprise 6-2, 6-1 defeat to Ekaterina Alexandrova.

Former Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka advanced at the Grampians Trophy with a 6-4, 1-6, 11-9 win over Yulia Putintseva but top seed Belinda Bencic fell 7-5, 6-2 to Sorana Cirstea.

Osaka eased past Irina-camelia Begu of Romania 7-5, 6-1 to set up a semi-final matchup against seventh seed Elise Mertens, who ousted third seed Svitolina 6-3, 5-7, 10-6.

Sumit Nagal was expecting a top-10 player in his opener but the Indian drew Lithuanian Ricardas Berankis as his first round opponent at the Australian Open.