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Groton Daily Independent
Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2018 ~ Vol. 25 - No. 190 ~ 19 of 40
As usual, the 36-year-old Federer stayed classy.
Six-time champion Djokovic and 2014 Australian Open winner Stan Wawrinka earlier made successful returns from injury layoffs with victories in their rst matches since Wimbledon.
Sharapova barely missed a beat in her rst match in Melbourne since a failed doping test here in 2016 resulted in a 15-month ban from tennis.
The ve-time major winner recovered from an early break in the second set and closed out her 6-1, 6-4 victory over Tatjana Maria with an ace.
“It’s been a couple of years since I’ve been back here — obviously I wanted to enjoy the moment,” the 2008 Australian Open champion said after blowing kisses to the crowd.
Former No. 1-ranked Kerber, the 2016 Australian Open winner, continued her resurgent run with a 6-0, 6-4 victory over Anna-Lena Friedsam to extend her streak to 10 consecutive wins.
“Something is going on with Australia and me,” said former No. 1-ranked Kerber, who the Sydney Inter- national last week for her rst title since the 2016 U.S. Open.
Djokovic tweaked his service motion while recovering from an injured right elbow, and used it to good effect in a 6-1, 6-2, 6-4 win over Donald Young.
Djokovic lost in the second round here last year, but won ve of the previous six Australian Open titles.
“Obviously I wanted to start with the right intensity, which I have,” Djokovic said. “I played perfect ten- nis, like I never stopped.”
Wawrinka, who had six months out after surgery on his left knee, beat Ricardas Berankis 6-3, 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (2).
No. 4-ranked 4-Alexander Zverev, No. 5 Dominic Thiem, No. 7 David Gof n, No. 19 Tomas Berdych ad- vanced, but No. 20 Roberto Bautista Agut lost to Fernando Verdasco and former Wimbledon nalist Milos Raonic lost to Lukas Lacko.
No. 13 Sam Querrey restored some order for the U.S. men with a 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 win over Feliciano Lopez.
Madison Keys reversed a trend, becoming the only one of the four American women who contested the U.S. Open semi nals four months ago to reach the second round in Australia.
No. 17-seeded Keys, the U.S. Open runner-up, advanced with a 6-1, 7-5 win over Wang Qiang and will be one of four American women in the second round.
Top-ranked Simona Halep had to save set points at 5-2 down in the rst set, and badly twisted her left ankle early in the second, before beating teenage wild-card entry Destanee Aiava 7-6 (5), 6-1.
Halep next plays 2014 Wimbledon nalist Eugenie Bouchard.
“It’s always really cool to go up against the best in the world,” Bouchard said. “I want to ... go out there and do some damage.”
Wimbledon champion Garbine Mugurza, No. 6 Karolina Pliskova, No. 8 Caroline Garcia, No. 9 Johanna Konta, No. 16 Elena Vesnina, No. 26 Agnieszka Radwanska, No. 28 Mirjana Lucic-Baroni and No. 29 Lucie Safarova advanced.
Two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova lost 6-3, 4-6, 10-8 to Andrea Petkovic.
Sharapova was banned after testing positive for the drug meldonium when she was here in 2016, and nished last year ranked No. 60 following a return to Grand Slam tennis at the U.S. Open.
Sharapova will next play No. 14-seeded Anastasija Sevastova, who beat her at last year’s U.S. Open.
“I felt like I have got a lot of things out of the way physically and emotionally and mentally last year with — there was a lot of rsts again for me, playing the rst tournament, rst Grand Slam, and just different feelings and what it would be routinely,” Sharapova said. “But it felt pretty routine today.”
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More AP coverage: www.apnews.com/tag/AustralianOpen