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Melbourne (AFP)
Sofia Kenin made a nervous begin to her Australian Open defence Tuesday, however ailing former champion Victoria Azarenka crashed out after needing remedy for respiratory difficulties throughout a straight-sets defeat.
Kenin edged via 7-5, 6-4 towards Australian Maddison Inglis, who’s ranked exterior the highest 100, and vented her frustration verbally all through a tetchy first spherical.
“I am clearly not proud of the best way I performed,” mentioned Kenin, who made 27 unforced errors on her return to Rod Laver Enviornment.
The 22-year-old gained her maiden Grand Slam a 12 months in the past towards Garbine Muguruza, who turned the tables to beat Kenin in a warm-up match final week and had little bother in dispatching Russia’s Margarita Gasparyan 6-4, 6-0 on the adjoining Margaret Courtroom Enviornment.
However the 2012 and 2013 champion Azarenka was a distressing sight as she went out to Jessica Pegula on the second day of the coronavirus-delayed Grand Slam.
Azarenka, who was one of many gamers locked down in onerous quarantine earlier than the match and never allowed out of her room to coach for 14 days, started to undergo within the second set.
The 2020 US Open runner-up, who solely performed one warm-up match final week, was seen gasping and utilizing an inhaler, after which regarded near collapse on courtroom. After a medical timeout she performed on however misplaced 7-5, 6-4.
“It was powerful for her, she wasn’t properly however I simply targeted on myself,” mentioned the 61st-ranked Pegula.
Fifth seed Elina Svitolina of the Ukraine was pushed onerous by Cezch Marie Bouzkouva earlier than coming via 6-3, 7-5 (7/5).
– Purple-hot Rublev –
Within the males’s draw, red-hot Russian seventh seed Andrey Rublev continued his unbeaten begin to the 12 months with a straight-sets win over German Yannick Hanfmann 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 on John Cain Enviornment.
“I used to be actually pleased I might management the match virtually from the start,” mentioned the 23-year-old, who blasted 17 aces.
Rublev claimed a tour-leading 5 ATP titles final 12 months and gained 4 straight matches to assist Russia win the ATP Cup final week, placing him within the dialog for a maiden Grand Slam crown.
Rafael Nadal’s bid for a report twenty first Grand Slam begins later, with health issues hanging over the Spaniard.
The 34-year-old faces 56th-ranked Laslo Djere after again bother dominated him out of final week’s ATP Cup.
Nadal raised the alarm on Sunday when he mentioned he’d been “struggling” with the damage for greater than two weeks.
Nadal is presently tied with the absent Roger Federer on 20 Grand Slam titles.
Girls’s world primary Ashleigh Barty will open the night time session on Rod Laver Enviornment as she goals to grow to be the primary Australian ladies’s champion since Chris O’Neil in 1978.
Barty, contemporary from profitable the Yarra Valley Basic last towards Muguruza on Sunday, performs Montenegro’s Danka Kovinic.
Among the many males’s contenders, fourth seed Daniil Medvedev performs Vasek Pospisil of Canada, and fifth-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas faces France’s Gilles Simon.
© 2021 AFP
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