Page 15 - aruba-today-20210202

A15
SPORTS Tuesday 2 February 2021
Serena Williams through easily in Australian Open tuneup

By JOHN PYE the 2017 Australian Open,
AP Sports Writer when she was two months
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) pregnant with now-3-year-
— Serena Williams found old daughter Olympia.
a silver lining in the de- In other matches at the
layed start to the Australian Yarra River Classic, No. 13
Open, the season-opening Danielle Collins beat Nina
Grand Slam tournament Stojanovic 6-2, 6-1 and sev-
that is starting three weeks enth-seeded Petra Martic
later than usual because of defeated Vera Lapko 4-6,
the COVID-19 pandemic. 6-3, 6-2.
Time. HALEP ADVANCES
Time to recover from an Second-ranked Simona
Achilles injury that ended Halep, the top-seeded
her run at last year's French player in the Gippsland Tro-
Open before her second- phy, had a 6-4, 6-4 second-
round match. Extra time round win over Anastasia
with her daughter, albeit in Potapova to advance
hotel quarantine. along with third-seeded Eli-
The 39-year-old American, United States' Serena Williams makes a backhand return to Australia's Daria Gavrilova during a na Svitolina, No. 8 Karolina
a seven-time Australian tuneup tournament ahead of the Australian Open tennis championships in Melbourne, Australia, Muchova and No. 9 Ekat-
Open champion, restarted Monday, Feb. 1, 2021. erina Alexandrova.
her lengthy quest for a 24th Associated Press Earlier, Coco Gauff was up
Grand Slam singles title with a service break in the sec-
a 6-1, 6-4 win over Daria to compete at Melbourne Against Gavrilova on Mar- nals in September and was ond set and appeared to
Gavrilova on Monday in a Park. garet Court Arena, she set to play the Bulgarian at be on the verge of victory
tuneup tournament at Mel- "I needed every time — I wore a long-sleeve shirt Roland Garros before injury in her first-round match be-
bourne Park. don't think I would have throughout the match dur- forced her to withdraw. fore having to fend off Jil
There are six tournaments been here if it was during ing a relatively cool summer The extra few weeks off Teichmann 6-3, 6-7 (6), 7-6
being staged this week to the regular season," she day in Melbourne and later before the season meant (5).
give players some chance said. "So, whew, that was said she achieved what she there was just enough time WARMUP WEEK
at competitive tennis be- an unwanted blessing, I had aimed to achieve for for the bare minimum prep- The first Grand Slam tour-
fore the first major of the would say, but it was much a second-round encounter aration. nament of the year was
year starts next Monday. needed for me. — mainly the 1 1/2 hours on "Honestly, not as much as I delayed by three weeks
Williams is playing in the "So I definitely took that court. would have liked, because to allow for COVID-19 pro-
Yarra Valley Classic, along time to recover and to just Williams hit 28 winners and I needed to take — Achilles tocols which required all
with top-ranked Ash Barty do the best that I can — had 19 unforced errors, ... oh my goodness, I didn't people arriving in Australia
and defending Austra- and so now it's a lot better." converted three of her six realize it would be this long," to spend 14 days in quar-
lian Open champion Sofia Williams played an exhibi- breakpoints and fended off she said. "So I definitely was antine.
Kenin. tion match against Naomi all four she faced. She will pushing the limits, but I'm The biggest men's tourna-
The fifth-seeded Williams Osaka in Adelaide last Fri- next face Tsvetana Pironko- here." ment is the ATP Cup team
said she was "pushing the day in her first post-quaran- va. Williams beat Pironkova Williams has been stalled on event, which starts Tues-
limits" just being fit enough tine action. in the U.S. Open quarterfi- 23 major singles titles since day. q

Rangers' DeAngelo goes unclaimed on waivers by rest of NHL

By STEPHEN WHYNO clined to say whether the The Athletic and New York
AP Hockey Writer move to waive DeAngelo Post reported that DeAn-
Tony DeAngelo went un- was solely performance- gelo was involved in a post-
claimed by the NHL's other related. game "altercation" outside
30 teams Monday after the "Things happen in pro the locker room Saturday
New York Rangers put him sports, and that was a de- night with goaltender Al-
on waivers. cision the organization exandar Georgiev. Quinn
It was not immediately made," Quinn said after said he wouldn't address
clear what the Rangers practice Sunday. "I don't "rumors."
would do with the 25-year- want to get into specifics. "This isn't about one in-
old defensemen who re- It's something the organiza- cident," he said. "It's not
mains under contract with tion decided to do." about one thing. This is a
them. DeAngelo is not ex- That the Rangers took such situation that the organiza-
pected to play Monday an aggressive move to at- tion felt was best at this cur-
night against Pittsburgh. tempt to cut ties with DeAn- rent time."
The Rangers waived DeAn- gelo speaks volumes about Quinn is expected to Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Tristan Jarry (35) blocks a shot
gelo on Sunday less than the 2014 first-round pick's speak to the media be- by New York Rangers' Tony DeAngelo to win a shootout and an
four months since re-signing fall in the eyes of the front fore the game. At 2-4-2 NHL hockey game in Pittsburgh, Friday, Jan. 22, 2021.
him to a $9.6 million, two- office and coaching staff. with six points through eight Associated Press
year contract. DeAngelo He had been a healthy games, the Rangers sit in
was on the ice for four Pen- scratch earlier this season, last place in the East Divi- season with 53 points in 68 they were playing last year,
guins goals in an overtime and Quinn said journey- sion. games during the short- and you could probably
loss Saturday night and has man Anthony Bitetto would DeAngelo has one point in ened regular season. say Tony would be one of
a minus-6 rating this season. replace DeAngelo in New six games. He tied for 12th "A handful of guys maybe them, but he's not the only
Coach David Quinn de- York's lineup. in Norris Trophy voting last aren't playing at the level one," Quinn said.q