Page 23 - ARUBA TODAY
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SPORTS A23
Wednesday 3 January 2018
Murray withdraws, Muguruza retires with cramps in Brisbane
By JOHN PYE behind the baseline and had been Muguruza’s only Australia’s Lleyton Hewitt made his comeback to tennis playing
AP Sports Writer had treatment on her legs scheduled tuneup event with fellow Australian Jordan Thompson in a doubles match
BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — before retiring from her before the first major of the against Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria and Ryan Harrison of the U.S.
Andy Murray’s long-term opening match against season gets under way in during the Brisbane International tennis tournament in Brisbane,
hip injury has forced him Aleksandra Krunic while Melbourne on Jan. 15. Australia, Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018.
out of the Brisbane Interna- leading in the third set The 30-year-old Murray is
tional, cast serious doubts Krunic rallied from 5-2 down also undecided, planning Associated Press
over his participation in the in the second set, forcing to stay in Brisbane for a
Australian Open and has the third in a tiebreaker, few days before deciding played a competitive In men’s first-round match-
him contemplating surgery. and earned a spot in the whether or not to contest match since his quarterfinal es in Brisbane, U.S. quali-
Former No. 1-ranked Mur- quarterfinals with a a 5-7, the Australian Open or fly exit at Wimbledon and his fier Michael Mmoh beat
ray pulled out of the Bris- 7-6 (3), 1-2 retired result af- home. ranking has slipped from Federico Delbonis 6-3, 6-4,
bane event after failing to ter almost 2 ½ hours in hu- Murray said he’d been try- No. 1 to No. 16. Chung Hyeon upset fifth-
practice Tuesday, two days mid conditions on Pat Raf- ing to rest and rehabilitate He’s not the only leading seeded Gilles Muller 6-3,
ahead of his scheduled re- ter Arena. the problematic right hip, player trying to overcome 7-6 (1), Kyle Edmund ral-
turn to competitive tennis “I don’t really cramp a lot, but realized after some injury, with top-ranked Ra- lied for a 6-7 (5), 7-6 (4), 6-4
for the first time since July. so I’m actually surprised practice sets in Australia fael Nadal and Novak win over Denis Shapovalov
“I came here with every in- that today my body was against leading players Djokovic also trying to re- and Denis Istomin beat No.
tention of making a strong like that,” Muguruza said, that he wasn’t fit for com- cover in time for the Austra- 7-seeded Damir Dzumhur
start to the year, but sadly adding that her calf mus- petition and needed to re- lian Open. 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-2.q
my team and I don’t feel cles started to cramp early assess his options.
that I’m where I need to in the second set. “It’s a “Obviously continuing re-
be just yet to compete at shame because I always hab is one option and giv-
the highest level,” the two- come here excited about ing my hip more time to
time Brisbane International the first tournament, and recover,” Murray wrote in
champion said in a state- this one was bad luck, I an Instagram post. “Sur-
ment. guess.” gery is also an option but
His withdrawal was con- Fifth-seeded Johanna Kon- the chances of a success-
firmed hours after Garbine ta reached the quarterfi- ful outcome are not as high
Muguruza, the Wimbledon nals with a 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 win as I would like which has
champion and women’s over Ajla Tomljanovic and made this my secondary
top seed, retired from her Alize Cornet advanced option and my hope has
opening match because with a 6-1, 7-5 win over Mir- been to avoid that.”
of leg cramps. jana Lucic-Baroni. Murray, a five-time Austra-
Muguruza fell to the court The Brisbane International lian Open runner-up, hasn’t
Coric upsets 2nd- Roger Federer wins in
seeded Carreno straight sets at Hopman Cup
Busta at Qatar Open
PERTH, Australia (AP) — derer saved a set point in match against Yuichi Su-
By SANDRA HARWITT, Asso- first match of the year. It’s Roger Federer continued the tiebreaker and won gita, grabbing his hip. He
ciated Press always maybe a little bit preparation for his Aus- on his third match point was forced to retire at 1-1
DOHA, Qatar (AP) — Borna tricky, but I can say from tralian Open title defense after a successful chal- in the second set after los-
Coric beat second-seeded the beginning that I was with a 6-3, 7-6 (8) win over lenge. ing the first set 7-6 (1).
Pablo Carreno Busta 5-7, playing very good. Karen Khachanov at the “I had to work hard, ex- Hopman Cup director
6-2, 7-6 (8) in the first of a “In the offseason, I was Hopman Cup, helping perience helps some- Paul Kilderry said he thinks
series of upsets at the Qa- working a lot on the net. I’m give Switzerland a 2-0 win time,” said Federer, who Sock will be OK for the un-
tar Open on Tuesday. very happy with that stat.” over Russia. beat Rafael Nadal in the beaten U.S. team’s impor-
The 48th-ranked Coric The 10th-ranked Carreno Federer’s playing partner Australian Open final last tant third game.
saved three match points Busta has won only one of Belinda Bencic beat An- year. “It’s good to be free- “He has had some treat-
in the third set tiebreaker nine official tour matches astasia Pavlyuchenkova swinging and young, like ment on it and he feels
before taking advantage he’s played since reaching 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 in a later wom- he is. I remember those he’ll be good to go,”
of his lone match point the U.S. Open semifinals, en’s singles match Tues- days ...” Kilderry said. “He said if
when Carreno Busta net- where he lost to Kevin An- day to give Switzerland its The win came before a felt uncomfortable out
ted a forehand to secure derson. second consecutive win record crowd of 13,943 there, so I think he was just
his place in the second However, his defeat wasn’t in Group B. at Perth Arena, an atten- a little nervous about do-
round. the only surprise on Tues- The 36-year-old Federer dance which eclipsed ing more damage.”
Coric successfully broke day. Third-seeded Tomas had his service broken by one of Federer’s matches The U.S. team had already
Carreno Busta’s serve Berdych of the Czech Re- the 21-year-old Khacha- last year in the Western led 1-0 after Japan’s fe-
when the Spaniard was public and fourth-seeded nov in the opening game, Australia state capital. male player, Naomi Osa-
serving for the match at 5-4 Albert Ramos-Vinolas of but rebounded to break Earlier, the United States ka, withdrew with an un-
and 6-5 in the third set. Spain were also beaten in back immediately and beat Japan 2-1 after an specified illness, handing
The Croat won 27 of the 33 the first round. won the opening set in 29 illness withdrawal by one CoCo Vandeweghe a
points he played at the net, Berdych lost 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 minutes. of the Japanese players. 6-0, 6-0 win.
and had 44 overall winners (4) to Jan-Lennard Struff Khachanov matched Fe- But the win may come at The Americans were also
in the 2 hour, 42 minute of Germany, while Ramos- derer impressively with a cost after Jack Sock in- awarded the Fast4 mixed
match. Vinolas was beaten 2-6, backhand winners in the jured his hip. doubles match 4-0, 4-0
“I didn’t know what to ex- 7-5, 7-5 by Guido Pella of second set before a back- Sock slipped on the court because Osaka was not
pect,” Coric said. “It’s the Argentina.q and-forth tiebreaker. Fe- during the first set of his able to compete.q
