Williams Bright new day ahead has to for Jason step up
Jack Newton has urged Jason Day to spend more time in Australia as the three- time major runner- up strives to take his golf to the next level.
Newton rates Day the most technically gifted player he’s seen in 30 years of helping to nurture Australia’s juniors and is convinced the world No. 11 can join Adam Scott as a major champion.
But Newton, a great of Australian golf, says it’s vital the US- based 26- year- old doesn’t become too Americanised.
Married to an American and living in Ohio with his wife and oneyear- old son, Day played the Australian Open last month for only the third time in his career.
The Queenslander finished equal fifth after winning the World Cup of Golf the week before at Royal Melbourne, confirming to Newton he has the game to win on any style of course anywhere on the planet.
‘‘ Jason Day is a wonderful player,’’ Newtonsaid..
‘‘ I have ( hosted) an international ( junior) tournament here that I’ve been doing since the mid- 80s.
‘‘ So I’ve seen all the best players from Karrie Webb to Adam Scott.
‘‘ You name it, they’ve all played in it, and I think Jason Day is technically the best junior I’ve seen come through.
‘‘ And at 26, he’s also knocking on the door for a major. He could have easily won the last two Masters.’’
Newton’s biggest concern is Day losing his Australian roots.
‘‘ As long as he doesn’t get too of the American BS,’’ he said.
‘‘ You’ve got to come back and get a good dose of Australia into you and recharge your batteries and go back.
‘‘ Because when you’re there, it’s a numbers game and they’re playing golf courses which suit the Americans.’’
According to Day, Newton need not worry, saying he’s as Aussie as Vegemite and promising to return to Australia more often.
‘‘ I’m never going stranger, mate,’’ he Sydney last month.
‘‘ I miss it a lot. I really want to be able to take my kids down here. I really enjoy the summer down here when it’s winter back home.
‘‘ My family’s still here, my mum and my sisters. I definitely want to be back here a lot more.
‘‘ I miss coming back and playing in front of the home crowd.’’
full to become a said at Royal Tonight, the errors from Venus Williams will have to come to an end.
The former world No 1 will have her toughest match of the ASB Classic so far when she plays the highly fancied Spaniard Garbine Muguruza for a place in the semifinals.
Williams needed three sets to beat Yvonne Meusburger 4- 6 6- 3 6- 2 in Auckland yesterday and it was another performance from her where the public got to see both extremes of her game.
Muguruza has looked impressive this week, despite it being her first tournament since last year’s Wimbledon. The 20- year- old says she’s out to make amends for the last time she played her.
They played last year in with Williams winning 7- 5 third set.
Muguruza says that time she was overawed playing against someone of Williams’ reputation, but is sure that won’t be the case tonight. ‘‘ I remember that I had a lot of chances, but I was so nervous because I was playing against Venus. I couldn’t give all of my tennis,’’ Muguruza said of that match.
‘‘ I am happy to play against her again, because I have this feeling from last time that I was close to winning.’’
Williams though, who is into the quarterfinals of a tournament for the first time since April last year, says she knows Muguruza will be out for revenge.
‘‘ She’s definitely a really talented player and she can do lots of talented things on the court,’’ Williams said.
‘‘ She has spins and flat balls, can crank her serve up as well.
‘‘ I would obviously like to play a cleaner match than I did in Brazil. I had a few errors there and I’m sure she would like to convert and make it 7- 5 her way.
‘‘ Different day, different surface, different year, so you never can tell.’’
As for her match against Meusburger yesterday, Williams admit- Brazil, in the Second round: Kurumi Nara ( JPN) def Ayumi Morita ( JPN) 6- 0 6- 1, [ 3] Kirsten Flipkens ( BEL) def Karolina Pliskova ( CZE) 6- 4 6- 3, [ 5] Jamie Hampton ( USA) def [ Q] Kristyna Pliskova ( CZE) 6- 3 6- 4, Garbine Muguruza ( ESP) def [ Q] Sharon Fichman ( CAN) 1- 6 6- 3 6- 3, Venus Williams ( USA) def Yvonne Meusburger ( AUT) 4- 6 6- 3 6- 2, [ 2] Ana Ivanovic ( SRB def Johanna Larsson ( SWE) 6- 1 6- 1, [ Q] Sachie Ishizu ( JPN) def Julia Goerges ( GER) 6- 2 3- 6 7- 5. ted some of it was good it wasn’t.
‘‘ My opponent was playing some of the best tennis of her career and was a totally different player to my first round opponent [ Andrea Hlavackova].
‘‘ She [ Meusburger] is more of a counter puncher, really consistent, runs down balls, so it took me a little while to get that into my head and change my strategy a bit.
‘‘ Today was a lot about my winners and my errors. I made some spectacular winners and some spectacular errors, but in my head I just wanted to keep playing aggressive because that’s my game and I know that as long as I keep doing that they’ll start landing.
‘‘ It’s the beginning of the year, not every shot is going to land right now and you have to be patient and stay positive.’’
‘ Meanwhile, there were comfortable wins for Kirsten Flipkens from Belgium against Karolina Pliskova yesterday, with the third seed defeating the Czech 6- 4 6- 3, while Pliskova’s twin sister, Kristyna, went down to the fifth seed Jamie Hampton 6- 3 6- 4.
There was some relief for the twins later in the day though as they combined to knock out New Zealander Abigail Guthrie and her Auckland born partner Sacha Jones 6- 4 6- 1 in the quarterfinals of the doubles.
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