Seventh-seeded Vera Zvonareva, a two-time semifinalist at Melbourne Park, had a 6-1, 7-6 (3) over Lucie Hradecka. Wozniak was in the second round of the Australian Open for the first time in her career. Later, Maria Kirilenko of Russia came back in a third set to disappoint Aleksandra Wozniak, from Blainville, Que., 6-4, 1-6, 6-2. 30 Angelique Kerber, who beat Stephanie Dubois of Laval, Ont., 7-5, 6-1. "Yeah, started my preparations in the off-season a little late, took a bit of extra time in practice instead of rushing into a tournament." "It was more about getting my feet going. Sharapova did not play in any warmup events and spent nearly two weeks in Melbourne ahead of the season's first major while she rested an injured left ankle. The 2008 champion had a 6-0, 6-1 second-round win over U.S. Maria Sharapova, one of the three former champions in the women's draw, reached the third round after just two hours on court in two matches. It was very tough to get back in the third set."
"In the beginning it was OK but I made many, many, many mistakes," Kvitova said of her 48 unforced errors. Open in the first major after winning Wimbledon, lost the second set and was down a break in the third before recovering to beat the Spaniard. Kvitova, who lost in the first round at the U.S. 2 Petra Kvitova scraped into the third round with a nervous 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 win over Carla Suarez Navarro. In doubles, second seeds Daniel Nestor of Toronto and partner Max Mirnyi of Belarus began their tournament with a comfortable 6-2, 6-2 win over young Australians Benjamin Mitchell and Matt Reid. 5 David Ferrer struggled early against American Ryan Sweeting before coming back to win 6-7 (4), 6-2, 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 Sixth-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who lost the 2008 Australian final to Djokovic, advanced 7-5, 6-4, 6-4 over Ricardo Mello of Brazil, while No. He wasn't letting me get into any kind of rhythm on what to expect from him.
"(Petzschner) was doing the right thing between making me just play and also putting the pressure on me. "I was struggling a little bit, I don't know why, when I was running forward," he said. He went on to lose the game as Petzschner levelled at five games apiece.īut Raonic bounced back and finally won when Petzschner hit a forehand out of bounds after nearly three hours. Raonic was frustrated against the 63rd-ranked Petzschner, as he tried to serve out the victory leading 5-4 in the fourth set, with a line call wide drawing his ire. In other action, Milos Raonic of Thornhill, Ont., advanced with a 6-4, 5-7, 6-2, 7-5 win over Germany's Philipp Petzschner. His 6-3, 6-2, 6-1 win over Santiago Giraldo of Colombia on Thursday was his 16th in a row in majors and keeps him on track to become only the fifth man in the Open era to win three consecutive Grand Slam singles tournaments. Novak Djokovic won the last men's title to kick off a stunning season, which started with a 41-match winning streak and finished with three of the four majors and the No. Williams won the Australian Open in 20 but didn't get to defend her title in 2011 because she was injured.
"Five hundred is a lot of matches to play, let alone to win." "I never will get there either, but it's really cool," Williams said. "The first thing I asked, of course, 'Is there anyone that achieved a thousand?"' There's been two: Martina Navratilova had a career record 1,442-219, and Chris Evert retired with a 1,309-146 record. "I knew I had to get there too, because I do everything she does," said Williams, "It's great, it's like the ultimate." Her older sister, Venus, has a win-loss record of 589-147 but is missing the Australian Open to recover from illness. It seems she was meant to be a tennis pro.
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"I wasn't meant to be a ballerina or anything," she told a post-match TV interview. She'd earlier put it down to just having "wobbly ankles."
But it's all taped up, so the tape really, really helped." It was my good ankle, so I'm good," she said, playing down concern that the fall had aggravated the left ankle sprain which hampered her preparation for the season's first major. It improved her career record to 500-104 in tour matches and it was her 16th consecutive match win at Melbourne Park, where she has won five of her 13 Grand Slam titles. After sitting and watching Barbora Zahlavova Strycova's shot float out to end the penultimate rally, Williams got up and whipped a backhand winner down the line on match point to move into the third round with a 6-0, 6-4 victory on Thursday. It's OK, she thought, it's the good ankle. MELBOURNE, Australia - Serena Williams was only two points from her 500th career match win when she tumbled to the court in the second round of the Australian Open.