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Tag: Australian Open Tennis Championships

  • Heat is off: Sinner advances to Australian Open quarterfinals

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    MELBOURNE, Australia — Jannik Sinner may have felt lucky to survive the Australian Open third round but he rebounded quickly in a 6-1, 6-3, 7-6 (2) win Monday over fellow Italian Luciano Darderi to reach the quarterfinals for a ninth consecutive Grand Slam event.

    The two-time defending champion struggled with the extreme heat and cramping in his Saturday afternoon win over No. 85-ranked Eliot Spizzirri, and only took control after the roof was closed in the third set.

    Sinner later admitted he got a bit lucky with the timing of the extreme heat policy being invoked, leading to an eight-minute break to close the roof. He was also able to refresh in a 10-minute extra cooling break between the third and fourth sets.

    In an evening match in cooler conditions Monday, he was cruising until Darderi lifted his tempo in the third set. Second-ranked Sinner missed match points in the 10th game on Darderi’s serve but then took it up a notch in the tiebreaker.

    “I felt quite good out there physically. Everything was okay today,” said Sinner, who had limited practice on his off day between his third- and fourth-round matches. “Let’s see what’s coming in the next round.”

    Toward the end of the match Darderi, in his first official head-to-head with Sinner, increased the speed of his forehand as he went for everything, and also added intensity to his serve.

    Darderi took the first two points of the tiebreaker but then had to pause for a few moments before serving because of a baby crying in the crowd at Margaret Court Arena.

    He didn’t win another point. Sinner reeled off the next seven to triumph in 2 hours and nine minutes.

    It extended Sinner’s unbeaten streak to 18 against other Italians on tour and earned a quarterfinal against No. 8 Ben Shelton or No. 12 Casper Ruud.

    “It was very, very difficult. We’re good friends off the court,” Sinner said. “Third set I had some break chances, I couldn’t use them. I got tight, so very happy I closed it in three sets.”

    Sinner had 19 aces — a personal record — and no double-faults and said he was satisfied with the work he put into his serve over the offseason.

    He also wanted to emphasize some minor changes to his game, including going to the net and trying to mix up his game.

    In a tough hold in the third set, Sinner saved a breakpoint by changing the direction of the rally with a forehand drop shot, bending his knees low, and winning a crucial point. With a serve-and-volley, he held the game.

    “Still room to improve, but very happy with how I’ve come back,” he said. “Now for sure, it (the serve) is a bit more stable. I try to go more to the net and being more unpredictable.”

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  • Djokovic secures 400th Grand Slam match win to extend record, ties Federer’s Australian Open mark

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    MELBOURNE, Australia — An even 400 in Grand Slams and 102 in Australia. Novak Djokovic just keeps setting tennis records.

    The 24-time major winner became the first player to reach 400 wins in Grand Slam singles when he beat Botic van de Zandschulp 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (4) on Saturday night in the third round of the Australian Open.

    It improved his win-loss record to 102-10 at the Australian Open, too, equaling Roger Federer’s career haul for the most-ever match wins at the season’s first major.

    Djokovic has won the Australian Open 10 times, more than anyone else. At 38, he’s in Australia aiming for a 25th career major that would make him the most decorated tennis player of all time.

    He was in control from the start against van de Zandschulp and was untroubled except for a few moments in the third set — when he tripped and tumbled to the court in the third game, and later when he faced two set points in the 12th.

    A medical timeout at the changeover after the third, when the trainer taped the ball of his right foot, and a forehand winner down the line diffused the first two of those issues.

    As Djokovic faced his second set point, chair umpire John Blom had to urge the crowd — repeatedly — not to make noise between the first and second serves.

    An animated Djokovic saved the next one, too, pretending to head the ball like a soccer player as the Dutchman’s shot sailed over the baseline.

    The crowd chanted “Nole, Nole, Nole” in support before he produced a winning serve to force a tiebreaker, which he won.

    Djokovic was happy to be playing a night match on a day when the tournament’s extreme heat policy had to be invoked and two-time defending champion Jannik Sinner struggled before advancing in the afternoon conditions.

    “I managed to have a ‘good’ fall if you can say so, I could protect myself,” Djokovic said of the tumble. “Things could have been pretty ugly.”

    He said his body is feeling good for this stage of the tournament, but he’s not getting too far ahead of himself after semifinals at all four majors last year.

    “I must say, it’s been a great start of the tournament,” he said. “Last year I learned a lesson. I got too excited too early in some of the Grand Slams … getting injured three out of four.”

    Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz split the four majors between them and, while Djokovic concedes “they’re playing on a different level right now,” he added: “I’m still trying to give these young guys a push for their money.”

    With his first-round win over Pedro Martinez, Djokovic equaled two all-time tennis records by starting his 21st Australian Open and his 81st Grand Slam event, and he added another milestone with his 100th win at Melbourne Park.

    That made him the first man to win 100 or more matches on three surfaces at the Grand Slams, with his 102 on grass at Wimbledon and 101 on clay at Roland Garros.

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  • Coco Gauff advances to second round at Australian Open despite serving struggles

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    MELBOURNE, Australia — Third-seeded Coco Gauff had some familiar struggles on serve but had still enough class and power to defeat Kamilla Rakhimova 6-2, 6-3 on Monday in a first-round match at the Australian Open.

    Gauff has won two Grand Slam titles but has never gone past the semifinals at Melbourne Park. She was knocked out in the quarterfinals last year.

    Gauff had six double faults in the first set against Rakhimova, and only one in the second set as she eventually found her range on serve. The American has struggled with double-faults and had 431 on the WTA Tour last year, by far the most of any player. No one else had more than 300.

    “I mean, it was just the first set,” Gauff said. “Only had one double in the second. I think both of us were struggling on the far side. The sun is right there, which I know for every time I play first on day here, that’s just how it is.

    “But once I got through kind of the first game, I had like three doubles in the first game, and once I got through that game, I mean, it was pretty much smooth sailing from there. Maybe I would have liked to put more first serves in the court, for sure.”

    The 21-year-old Gauff has been reworking her serve for the last several months and practiced some more during a comfort break in the match on Rod Laver Arena.

    Gauff faces left-handed Olga Danilovic in the second round. Danilovic defeated 45-year-old Venus Williams on Sunday in a first-round match, which erased the possibility of the two Americans facing off.

    “There’s not many (left-handed players) on Tour, but Olga’s a great player, she’s beat some top players so it’s going to be a tough match,” Gauff said.

    No. 4 Amanda Anisimova, runner-up at the last two majors, advanced 6-3, 6-2 over Simona Waltert, No. 6 Jessica Pegula beat Anastasia Zakharova 6-2, 6-1 and No. 14 Clara Tauson had a 6-3, 6-3 win over Dalma Galfi.

    Sofia Kenin’s poor recent run at the Australian Open continued as she lost 6-3, 6-2 to fellow-American Peyton Stearns.

    Kenin won the 2020 Australian title but has since struggled at Melbourne Park since, losing in the first round for the fifth consecutive time.

    No. 15 Emma Navarro lost in three sets to Magda Linette of Poland.

    Priscilla Hon secured her first trip to the second round of her home major in six years and also helped her opponent Marina Stakusic leave the court in a wheelchair after the Canadian qualifier collapsed with severe leg cramps.

    Another Canadian player ended early with cramping, with No. 7 Felix Auger-Aliassime retiring from his match with Nuno Borges of Portugal. Borges led 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 when Auger-Aliassime walked to the net to shake hands.

    “I can’t recall ever in my life (cramping) this early in a tournament, this early in a match,” he said.

    Stan Wawrinka kicked off his farewell season at the Slams with a 5-7, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (4) win over Laslo Djere. The 2014 champion announced last month that 2026 will be his last year on the elite tour.

    “It is my last year. It’s been too long that I’m coming back!” he said. “The passion is still intact. Today was amazing. I’m so happy that I won — I have a chance to play one more here.”

    Three-time Australian Open runner-up Daniil Medvedev beat Jesper de Jong 7-5, 6-2, 7-6 (2) to continue a streak Down Under that included a title run in Brisbane. No. 19 seed Tommy Paul defeated Aleksandar Kovacevic 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 in an all-American match to advance along with Reilly Opelka and No. 13 Andrey Rublev.

    Local hope Alex de Minaur, the No. 6 seed, beat Mackenzie McDonald — a lucky loser from qualifying who replaced the injured former Wimbledon runner-up Matteo Berrettini — 6-2, 6-2, 6-3 in an afternoon match on Rod Laver Arena.

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  • Madison Keys pictures herself as a champion again at the Australian Open

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    MELBOURNE, Australia — Madison Keys planned to walk into the player tunnel at Rod Laver Arena in a quiet moment when nobody was watching, and take a photo of her name listed with the other champions at the Australian Open.

    After beating top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka in last year’s final at Melbourne Park to win her first Grand Slam title, Keys pictured the moment she’d return to the stadium for the first time as defending champion.

    “I’ve always kind of remembered walking through that tunnel and seeing all the names,” she said Friday, two days before the first major of the year starts. “It was a little bit of a pinch-me moment where I was like, ‘Wow, I’m going to be up there.’

    “I have not seen my name in the tunnel yet. I hope I can go in there when there’s no one else so I can take a picture and send it to my mom.”

    Before facing the media in Melbourne, she couldn’t help but notice other evidence at the venue of her breakthrough triumph.

    “There’s a really cool photo of me holding the trophy,” Keys said. “Getting to see those, it’s something you dream of in your career.”

    The 30-year-old American said it was easy to look back almost 12 months and think everything worked to perfection, but “also you think about, ‘Wow, I almost lost.’

    “I was match point down. So many three-set matches. There were some ugly matches. I think it kind of just makes everything a little bit better just because it wasn’t issue-free.”

    Keys won a tune-up tournament in Adelaide in 2025 before ending Sabalenka’s 20-match winning streak at the Australian Open. At 29, she was the tournament’s oldest first-time women’s champion. She also set a record as the player with the longest gap between their first two Grand Slam finals — her first was the 2017 U.S. Open.

    The Australian Open victory launched her into a Top 5 ranking the following month. After the breakthrough, though, she was ousted in the French Open quarterfinals, the third round at Wimbledon and had a nervy first-round exit at the U.S. Open. At the season-ending WTA Finals, she lost two group-stage matches.

    Sabalenka, meanwhile, admitted Friday that the loss here to Keys last year was tough.

    “She played incredible and overplayed me. Took me a little time to recover,” she said. “We had matches after that. I worked on my mistake on those matches.

    “Going to this AO, I’m not really focusing on that last year result but of course I would like to do just a little bit better than I did last year!”

    Sabalenka, who beat Keys in the quarterfinals last week en route to the Brisbane International title, plays her first-round match Sunday night against Tiantsoa Rakotomanga Rajaonah, a wild-card entry from France.

    Keys also lost in the quarterfinals in her title defense in Adelaide earlier this week. But she’s taking it in her stride as she prepares for another career first: defending a major title.

    “Even though I’ve been on tour for a long time, this is also still my first experience as that,” she said. “I’m really just trying to soak in all of the really cool fun parts.”

    Seeded ninth and on the other side of the draw from Sabalenka, Keys is scheduled to open against Oleksandra Oliynykova of Ukraine.

    “Yes, I’m sure going on court I’m going to be very nervous,” she said, “but I don’t think I’ve ever walked on court first round of a Grand Slam and not been nervous.”

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  • Aryna Sabalenka advances to the Brisbane International final after beating Muchová

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    BRISBANE, Australia — Top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka defeated Karolina Muchová 6-3, 6-4 Saturday to advance to the Brisbane International final.

    Sabalenka, the defending Brisbane champion, clinched the semifinal at Pat Rafter Arena on her fourth match point to advance to Sunday’s final against the winner of a later semifinal between fourth-seeded Jessica Pegula and Marta Kostyuk.

    On Friday, in a rematch of last year’s Australian Open final, Sabalenka broke Madison Keys’ in five straight service games on the way to a 6-3, 6-3 win. Last year at Melbourne Park, Keys beat Sabalenka for her first Grand Slam singles title.

    The Brisbane International is a tuneup event for this year’s Australian Open, which begins Jan. 18.

    In the men’s tournament at Brisbane, top-seeded Daniil Medvedev will play Alex Michelsen of the United States in a later semifinal. Two Americans feature in the other semi, with Aleksandar Kovacevic playing Brandon Nakashima.

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  • Sabalenka dominates Bucsa at Brisbane International, prepares for Australian Open

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    BRISBANE, Australia — The Battle of the Sexes exhibition was a bit of fun for Aryna Sabalenka, and a showdown she also regarded as good preparation for the Australian Open.

    In her first match since playing Nick Kyrgios in Dubai last month, top-ranked Sabalenka overwhelmed No. 50 Cristina Bucsa 6-0, 6-1 on Tuesday to start her title defense at the Brisbane International. The aim was to lay down a marker ahead of a potential quarterfinal against Madison Keys, who had a 6-4, 6-3 win over McCartney Kessler.

    The exhibition attracted some criticism but also, at least as far as Sabalenka is concerned, a lot of positive attention.

    “It was fun. It was a great challenge. I think we brought so many eyes on tennis,” she said. “What I’m sad about is that some people got it wrong, the whole idea of that event.

    “And I don’t care. I feel like there’s always going to be people who don’t like you, don’t respect you, don’t support you, but there’s so many people who support me, who really cheer me on and who find inspiration in me. I’m focusing on that part.”

    Sabalenka’s focus now is getting back onto a winning roll in Australia. She won back-to-back Australian Open titles in 2023 and ’24 and was on a 20-match winning streak at Melbourne Park until a loss in last year’s final to Keys.

    “Going into (Tuesday’s) match, I was just playing my tennis, I was focusing on my game, on things that I was working on,” Sabalenka said, adding that the exhibition with Kyrgios helped. “I mean, when you play against the guys, the intensity is completely different, especially when there is Nick who is like drop shotting every other shot, so you move a lot. So there was a great, great fitness for me.”

    It wasn’t so great for the often-injured Kyrgios, the 2022 Wimbledon finalist and former Brisbane International winner who lost 6-3, 6-4 to No. 58 Aleksandar Kovacevic in his first ATP Tour match since March.

    He’s been restricted to just six matches in the last three years because of knee and wrist surgeries.

    The mercurial Australian has been playing exhibitions in an effort to get back into touch and if he doesn’t get a wildcard entry for the Australian Open, he’s planning on entering qualifying.

    For No. 7 Keys, preparation for an attempted Australian Open title defense will go via Brisbane and then Adelaide, where she won last year to kick start her run to a first Grand Slam title.

    “Last year was a dream come true,” Keys said. “I would obviously love a repeat of last year. That is always the goal.”

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  • Get ready for Coco Gauff vs. Naomi Osaka at the US Open. It’s been 6 years since their first matchup

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    NEW YORK — NEW YORK (AP) — Coco Gauff and Naomi Osaka set up a high-profile showdown between two past title winners in the U.S. Open’s fourth round with victories Saturday.

    “Everyone will be watching,” Venus Williams said. “That’s what tennis needs.”

    Their meeting on Monday, with a quarterfinal berth at stake, is a rematch from 2019, when Gauff was a 15-year-old making her main-draw debut at Flushing Meadows and Osaka was the reigning champion.

    Osaka won that one in straight sets, then consoled a teary Gauff on the sideline and encouraged her to speak to an Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd that was pulling for the young American.

    “I kind of see her as a little sister,” Osaka said Saturday, “so it’s kind of cool to be playing her here again.”

    She advanced to her first fourth-round match at any major since the 2021 Australian Open by eliminating No. 15 seed Daria Kasatkina 6-0, 4-6, 6-3 at Louis Armstrong Stadium, after Gauff made it that far at the U.S. Open for the fourth consecutive year with a 6-3, 6-1 victory over No. 28 Magdalena Frech at Ashe.

    “It’s been a really long journey,” Osaka said during her on-court interview, “but I’m glad to be here now.”

    Osaka, who was born in Japan and moved with her family to the United States as a kid, joked to the Armstrong fans: “Can somebody come to the match and cheer for me? It’s kind of tough playing an American here, but I hope you guys adopted me, as well.”

    So much has happened to both Osaka and Gauff since that headline-worthy encounter six years ago in New York.

    The No. 3-seeded Gauff, 21, is now a two-time Grand Slam champ, including at the U.S. Open in 2023, and a real star.

    No. 23 Osaka, 27, owns four major titles — including at the U.S. Open in 2018 and 2020 — and has been ranked No. 1. She was among the athletes at the forefront of conversations about mental health, opening up at the 2021 French Open about dealing with anxiety and depression, then taking a series of breaks from the tour.

    “Naomi and I, we aren’t super close or anything, but we’re definitely friendly with each other,” Gauff said. “I support her from afar in all the things that she’s done — on and off the court.”

    Gauff has won three of their four head-to-head matches since that unforgettable night in Ashe.

    “I remember it was a tough moment for me, because it was a hyped-up match. … I guess I put way too much pressure on myself, thinking I maybe had a chance in that moment to actually do something, which I definitely did, but I think it was just I felt more expectation than I should than maybe belief,” Gauff said.

    “It would be a cool, kind of, deja vu type of situation,” Gauff said Saturday, “but hopefully it will be a different result.”

    Williams and Leylah Fernandez reached the third round of women’s doubles with a 7-6 (1), 6-1 win over Ulrikke Eikeri and Eri Hozumi. The 45-year-old Williams is playing doubles at a Grand Slam tournament for the first time since 2022.

    No. 1 Jannik Sinner dropped a set in New York for the first time since last year’s quarterfinals but righted himself for a 5-7, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 victory over No. 27 Denis Shapovalov. Other men moving on included Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime, who knocked off third-seeded Alexander Zverev, and No. 10 Lorenzo Musetti, whose opponent in an all-Italian match, No. 23 Flavio Cobolli, stopped because of a painful right arm. Women into the fourth round included No. 2 Iga Swiatek, who rallied from down 5-1 in the first set to win, and No. 11 Karolina Muchova — a U.S. Open semifinalist in 2023 and 2024 and the woman who beat Williams in the first round this year.

    Novak Djokovic, Taylor Fritz, Aryna Sabalenka and Jessica Pegula are among the players who will be attempting to reach the quarterfinals by winning Sunday.

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    Howard Fendrich has been the AP’s tennis writer since 2002. Find his stories here: https://apnews.com/author/howard-fendrich. More AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis

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  • Masters to take winners of six national opens and eliminate invitations to PGA Tour fall winners

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    The Masters is moving away from inviting PGA Tour fall winners and now will invite the winners of six national opens around the world.

    Augusta National and the R&A have collaborated to identify the national opens that will create a path to the Masters and the British Open. The R&A has been using such a model for several years.

    But it’s a big change for the Masters, which has invited winners of weaker fall events since the PGA Tour went to a wraparound season in 2013. The PGA Tour is back to a calendar year. Last year, four of the seven fall winners were outside the top 100 in the world ranking.

    This decision was more about recognizing the global nature of golf. Starting this year, Masters invitations will go to the winners of the Spanish Open, Japan Open, Hong Kong Open, Australian Open, South African Open and Scottish Open.

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  • Australian Open champion Madison Keys loses in the US Open’s first round to Renata Zarazua of Mexico

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    NEW YORK — Pretty much from the get-go at the U.S. Open on Monday, Madison Keys could tell she wasn’t hitting the ball well or feeling very much at all like the self-confident player who claimed her first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open in January.

    After 89 unforced errors, including 14 double-faults, the No. 6-seeded Keys was gone from Flushing Meadows in the first round with a 6-7 (10), 7-6 (3), 7-5 loss to 82nd-ranked Renata Zarazua of Mexico.

    “For the first time in a while … my nerves really got the better of me, and it kind of became a little bit paralyzing,” said Keys, the runner-up in New York to good friend Sloane Stephens in 2017 and a semifinalist in 2018 and 2023. “I felt like I was just slow. I wasn’t seeing things the way that I wanted to, which I feel like resulted in a lot of bad decisions and lazy footwork.”

    Her first U.S. Open with the status of major champion — thanks to defeating No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the final at Melbourne Park — was over just as it began.

    “You always kind of feel first-round jitters and, as the day is getting closer, feeling a little bit more and more nervous,” said Keys, who played with her left thigh heavily taped. “But I feel like, for whatever reason, today I just couldn’t separate myself from … feeling like winning matters just way too much.”

    She made so many mistakes off the spin-laden shots coming her way that Zarazua needed to produce just eight winners to earn the biggest victory of her career. Zarazua lost in the first or second round of all eight of her previous Slam appearances.

    Yet somehow, it was Zarazua who managed to deal with any nervousness better, even though she was competing in cavernous Arthur Ashe Stadium for the first time and had only had a chance to hit there once a couple of days prior.

    The 5-foot-3 Zarazua came into the day with a 0-6 record against opponents ranked in the top 10.

    “I’m a little bit small in height, so coming in here, it was like: ‘Oh, my God. This is huge,’” Zarazua said about the largest stadium in tennis, which holds nearly 24,000 spectators.

    When the match ended with Keys missing a forehand, Zarazua smiled as wide as possible, held her racket atop her head, then placed a hand over her face.

    This one certainly was memorable, in part because it did not come easily and lasted 3 hours, 10 minutes.

    Zarazua trailed by a set — after frittering away five chances to take the opener — and 3-0 in the second.

    Quite a daunting deficit. But she never went away.

    “Kudos to her for making me play a lot of balls today,” Keys said. “I mean, she’s a tricky player.”

    While Keys was one of 25 American players in the women’s singles draw, the 27-year-old Zarazua is Mexico’s lone entrant in the bracket. She moved to San Antonio as a teen, and is now based in Florida.

    “In Mexico, yeah, it’s probably not the most famous sport,” Zarazua said about tennis, which she picked up after starting out in gymnastics and diving.

    “I got into tennis,” she explained, “just because my brother was playing, and he was like, ‘I think this is a bit safer sport.’”

    Brazilian teenager João Fonseca, who turned 19 on Thursday, won his U.S. Open debut, defeating Miomir Kecmanovic 7-6 (3), 7-6 (5), 6-3 in front of a raucous crowd of his countrymen. Another precocious player, 18-year-old Canadian Vicky Mboko, who was seeded 22nd, was eliminated by two-time major champion Barbora Krejcikova 6-3, 6-2. Two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, who is 35, played her last match before retirement, losing to Diane Parry 6-1, 6-0, and 2022 U.S. Open semifinalist Caroline Garcia, 31, also exited the final tournament of her career, eliminated 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 by Kamilla Rakhimova. Frances Tiafoe, a two-time semifinalist in New York, beat Yoshihito Nishioka in straight sets. At night, Venus Williams lost her first Grand Slam match in two years, before Carlos Alcaraz showed up with a new buzz cut and beat Reilly Opelka 6-4, 7-5, 6-4.

    A packed program for Day 3 of the first round includes Grand Slam champions Coco Gauff, Iga Swiatek and Jannik Sinner. Gauff’s opponent is Ajla Tomljanovic, who beat Serena Williams at the U.S. Open in the last match of 23-time major title winner’s career. This is Gauff’s first match since she began working with biomechanics coach Gavin MacMillan in a bid to improve her serve.

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  • Jannik Sinner ends 10-time champion Novak Djokovic’s unbeaten streak in Australian Open semifinals

    Jannik Sinner ends 10-time champion Novak Djokovic’s unbeaten streak in Australian Open semifinals

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    MELBOURNE, Australia — Jannik Sinner has upset Novak Djokovic to reach the Australian Open men’s final, ending the 10-time champion’s career unbeaten streak in semifinals at Melbourne Park.

    The 22-year-old Italian broke Djokovic’s serve twice in each of the first two sets but missed a match point in the third set of a 6-1, 6-2, 6-7 (6), 6-3 victory Friday that earned him a place in a Grand Slam final for the first time.

    On his second match point, 55 minutes later, he made no mistake and completed his third victory in four matches against Djokovic since losing to the world No. 1 in last year’s Wimbledon semifinals.

    “It’s always nice to have this kind of player who you can learn from,” Sinner said in his on-court TV interview. “I lost last year in the semifinals in Wimbledon and I learned a lot from that. It’s all part of the process.”

    He’ll play either third-seeded Daniil Medvedev or No. 6 Alexander Zverev for the championship on Sunday.

    Djokovic’s bid for a record-extending 11th Australian and 25th major title overall will have to wait.

    He hadn’t lost a match at Melbourne Park since 2018 and was on a 33-match winning streak at the season’s first major. Every previous time he’d won a quarterfinal in Australia, Djokovic had gone on to win the hardcourt title.

    Sinner took the first two sets in under 1 1/4 hours in an astonishing start to the match.

    But Djokovic picked up his service percentage, cut down his unforced errors and and upped the pressure on Sinner in the third.

    Djokovic was serving at 5-5 and at deuce when play was interrupted while a spectator received medical help in the stands. After ambulance officers helped the man walk out, Djokovic held serve and saved a match point at 5-6 in the tiebreaker.

    Djokovic won three straight points to force a fourth set, but was immediately in trouble again on his serve.

    He fended off three break points to hold from 15-40 down in the second game of the fourth but Sinner got a decisive service break in the fourth game, winning five straight points from 40-0 down to take a 3-1 lead.

    Continuous chants of “Nole, Nole, Nole, Nole” echoed around Rod Laver Arena between big points from Djokovic fans encouraging their champion, giving it a vibe.

    It helped lift the intensity of both players.

    The chair umpire asked spectators three times to keep quiet with Sinner serving for the match.

    The loss to Djokovic at Wimbledon has become a turning point in their rivalry. After losing the first three meetings, Sinner won two of the next three — all in November — in the group stage of the ATP Finals in Turin and in the Davis Cup semifinals.

    Sinner was the only player in the final four who didn’t drop a set in the tournament, and he spent almost four fewer hours on court through five rounds than Djokovic, who was taken to four sets three times.

    Still, the odds were stacked against fourth-seeded Sinner.

    But he played calm, nearly flawless tennis in the first two sets and piled pressure on Djokovic’s serve in a relatively cool 21 degrees Celsius (70 Fahrenheit) and a light breeze.

    He was holding his serve with relative ease against a player contesting a 48th Grand Slam semifinal.

    Djokovic rallied, as he always does, to make Sinner win it. But he didn’t get a look at a break point in the match.

    He was one match short of a fifth consecutive Grand Slam final. He hadn’t lost an Australian Open match since 2018, a fourth-round defeat to Chung Hyeon.

    The 36-year-old Serbian star missed his first chance to be just the third person in history to win 11 titles at any Grand Slam event — Rafael Nadal has 14 French Open titles and Margaret Court won 11 Australian Open women’s titles.

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  • Ukrainian qualifier Yastremska is into her first Grand Slam semifinal at the Australian Open

    Ukrainian qualifier Yastremska is into her first Grand Slam semifinal at the Australian Open

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    MELBOURNE, Australia — Dayana Yastremska reached her first Grand Slam singles semifinal on Wednesday after beating Linda Noskova 6-3, 6-4 at the Australian Open.

    The 93rd-ranked Ukrainian, who had to qualify for the main draw, wrapped up the victory in 78 minutes as she set up a match with either 12th-ranked Zheng Qinwen or Anna Kalinskaya in the last four.

    The Ukrainian is only the second qualifier to reach the women’s singles semis at the Australian Open in the Open era, after Christine Storey in 1978.

    “It’s nice to make history because at that time I was not born, I’m 2000,” she said. “I’m super-happy, very tired.”

    Noskova beat top-ranked Iga Swiatek on her way to the quarterfinals.

    Later Wednesday, men’s No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz and No. 3 Daniil Medvedev attempt to set up a blockbuster semifinal. Alcaraz plays sixth-seeded Alexander Zverev in the night match while Medvedev faces No. 9 Hubert Hurkacz in the afternoon session.

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  • Djokovic holds off Fritz to reach Australian Open semifinals for 11th time

    Djokovic holds off Fritz to reach Australian Open semifinals for 11th time

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    MELBOURNE, Australia — Novak Djokovic held off Taylor Fritz 7-6 (3), 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 in 3 3/4 hours to reach the Australian Open semifinals for the 11th time on Tuesday.

    When he gets through the quarterfinals in Australia, Djokovic is unbeaten.

    The 24-time major champion has won all 10 semifinals he’s contested at Melbourne Park, and all 10 finals. In his record-extending 48th Grand Slam semifinal, he’ll play No. 4-seeded Jannik Sinner or No. 5 Andrey Rublev.

    Fritz saved the first 15 breakpoints he faced, an unheard of stat against one of the best returners ever.

    “We all know Taylor has got one of the best serves in the world,” Djokovic said. “I knew the kind of threat he poses when he serves on such a high quality.

    “My conversion was really poor but in the end of the day, I managed to break him when it mattered. I upped my game midway through the third set, all the way to the end.”

    The first game set the tone for a long, tough match. It lasted 16 minutes and contained 24 points, going to deuce nine times. Fritz fended off three breakpoints before finally holding.

    The first set lasted 1 hour, 24 minutes — the longest opening set of the tournament — and was in the balance until the tiebreaker.

    The match started in bright sunlight and almost 32-degree (90 Fahrenheit) heat, and the shade moved from west to east across the court from behind the umpire’s chair.

    After Fritz held in the 11th game, Djokovic was agitated and gesturing to get the attention of his support team, calling for salts.

    But after holding and taking the set to a tiebreaker, Djokovic finished a 21-shot rally with a stunning backhand crosscourt winner to get five set points. He put his finger to his ear, nodded his head and blew a kiss toward a commentary box at the rear of the court.

    It was Fritz who got the first service break to open the second set, having fended off eight in the first set against him.

    He saved another seven break point chances in the second, mostly with clean winners, and maintained the break to level at one set apiece, closing with an ace.

    After all that resistance, though, Fritz was broken in the second game of the third set when Djokovic converted his 16th chance. Djokovic broke again, at love, in the ninth game to wrap up the third set in 38 minutes.

    In the fourth, Fritz struggled to hold in a game that contained 14 points and then was broken in the sixth. He hit back immediately, converting his second break point with a forehand that clipped the net and dropped for a winner.

    But Djokovic denied anymore twists by breaking back again for 5-3 and serving out.

    Djokovic had beaten Fritz in straight sets in all but one of their previous eight encounters, including last year’s U.S. Open quarterfinals. The exception was here in Australia in 2021, when it went to five.

    The first of the men’s quarterfinals started in the late afternoon after U.S. Open champion Coco Gauff’s three-hour 7-6 (6), 6-7 (3), 6-2 win over Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine.

    The 19-year-old Gauff, on a 12-match winning streak in Grand Slams, will next play defending champion Aryna Sabalenka or Barbora Krejcikova.

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  • Protester throws papers on court, briefly disrupts Australian Open match between Zverev and Norrie

    Protester throws papers on court, briefly disrupts Australian Open match between Zverev and Norrie

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    MELBOURNE, Australia — A pro-Palestinian protester threw papers onto an Australian Open court and briefly disrupted a match between Alexander Zverev and Cameron Norrie on Monday before being stopped by other spectators.

    Olympic champion Zverev said he didn’t feel unsafe but questioned why it took several minutes for security to react, leaving it to tennis fans to intervene.

    “When something like this happens, it shouldn’t be another fan dragging the other person out,” he said, noting that security at Melbourne Park was usually very tight, including for the players. “It should be the security guys … there quite quickly.”

    Protesters threw anti-war pamphlets onto at least two courts and also near the entrance to the tournament site.

    At Zverev’s match, a woman wearing a face mask threw anti-war pamphlets from the stands onto the court behind the baseline during the sixth game of the third set on Margaret Court Arena.

    Printed in black on the white pages was the message “Free Palestine” and “While you’re watching tennis bombs are dropping on Gaza.”

    Ball kids gathered up the papers and the match continued after security escorted the protester away.

    Zverev won the match 7-5, 3-6, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (3) to advance to a quarterfinal against No. 2-ranked Carlos Alcaraz.

    Norrie, who was serving in the game that was halted, also said he didn’t feel threatened.

    “Those things happen nowadays,” he said. “There were a couple of fans that actually helped out. But yeah, I don’t think anyone felt threatened or anything.

    “It was all right. I managed to hold my serve that game, so yeah.”

    Tennis Australia confirmed two spectators stopped the protester on Margaret Court Arena “and we appreciate their actions.”

    “Venue security was deployed (and) the individual was subsequently evicted from the event,” organizers said in a statement. “Anyone seeking to disrupt the event — as we saw tonight — will be removed.”

    In a statement, Victoria state police said officers were notified that a small group of people threw pamphlets onto Margaret Court Arena, Kia Arena and elsewhere on the tournament site.

    Police said two women, aged 35 and 36, were detained but released without charge.

    Zverev said he wasn’t aware what the protest was about until he was told at a news conference.

    “There’s obviously a lot going on in the world and a lot of quite bad things happen. I understand some people are frustrated,” he said. “Of course, a tennis match has nothing particularly to do with it.”

    Zverev said security was so tight for players that he’d been stopped while trying to access the gym from the locker room without his accreditation.

    “On-site where the players’ area is, is extremely strict,” he said. “Even today, I played obviously five sets, four hours. They wouldn’t let me into the gym because I forgot my credential in the locker room.

    “What are you doing? You’re protecting players from players? That’s not really the whole point. Something like this happens and it takes three, four minutes for somebody to show up.”

    A group behind the protest said pro-Palestinian activists stopped play on multiple courts by dropping the pamphlets and playing loud audio of bombs dropping in Gaza.

    The Israel-Hamas war began with Hamas’ attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7. Palestinian militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took about 250 hostages back to Gaza.

    The Palestinian death toll from the war has soared past 25,000, the Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip said Sunday.

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  • Top-ranked Iga Swiatek is out of the Australian Open after a 3rd-round loss to Linda Noskova

    Top-ranked Iga Swiatek is out of the Australian Open after a 3rd-round loss to Linda Noskova

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    Top-ranked Iga Swiatek is out of the Australian Open after a 3rd-round loss to Linda Noskova

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  • No. 1 Iga Swiatek exits Australian Open in a 3rd-round loss to Czech teenager Linda Noskova

    No. 1 Iga Swiatek exits Australian Open in a 3rd-round loss to Czech teenager Linda Noskova

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    MELBOURNE, Australia — Top-ranked Iga Swiatek is out of the Australian Open after a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 third-round loss to 50th-ranked Linda Noskova on Saturday, leaving no top 10 players in the bottom half of the women’s draw.

    Swiatek is a four-time major winner but has never been past the semifinals at Melbourne Park.

    Even so, she was on an 18-match winning streak and expected to beat Noskova, who is making her main draw debut at the tournament.

    Swiatek beat 2020 Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin and 2022 finalist Danielle Collins in the first two rounds.

    But after taking the first set against her 19-year-old Czech opponent, she struggled for rhythm.

    After saving breakpoint in the seventh game of the second set, Noskova won 11 of the next 12 points to level the match at one set apiece.

    Noskova continued to pound away and got the decisive break in the seventh game of the third set.

    Swiatek held at love in the penultimate game and made her rival serve it out, then jumped to 0-30 lead in the 10th game.

    But Noskova remained calm, winning the next four points to finish it off quickly. She earned match point with an ace and sealed it when Swiatek sent a forehand long.

    Swiatek’s loss leaves No. 12 Zheng Qinwen as the highest-ranked player in the bottom half of the women’s draw and two-time Australian Open winner Victoria Azarenka, at No. 18, as the only major winner.

    Defending champion Aryna Sabalenka, seeded second, U.S. Open champion Coco Gauff, seeded fourth, and No. 9 Barbora Krejcikova are all on the opposite side of the draw.

    The men’s draw remains stacked, with No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz and No. 3 Daniil Medvedev having straight-set wins Saturday to reach the fourth round. Top-ranked Novak Djokovic, No. 4 Jannik Sinner and No. 5 Andrey Rublev already reached the last 16 on the top half of the draw.

    Medvedev beat Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 and finished 2 1/2 hours before midnight local time. His second-round match finished close to 4 a.m. Friday.

    He will next play Nuno Borges, who upset No. 13 Grigor Dimitrov 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-2, 7-6 (6).

    Wimbledon champion Alcaraz was leading 6-1, 6-1, 1-0 when the 18-year-old Shang Juncheng retired in the third set, ending the match in 66 minutes.

    “It’s not the way you want to move on,” said the 20-year-old Alcaraz, who missed the 2023 Australian Open because of injury. “Last year I was watching the matches from my couch, wishing to be in the second week.”

    Alcaraz will play Miomir Kecmanovic, who saved two match points before upsetting 2023 semifinalist Tommy Paul 6-4, 3-6, 2-6, 7-6 (7), 6-0.

    Paul led by two sets to one on Margaret Court Arena and had match points in the fourth, but Kecmanovic leveled and then raced through the deciding set for victory.

    No. 9 Hubert Hurkacz is into the fourth round in back-to-back years after beating No. 21 Ugo Humbert 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (4), 6-3. He will next play French wildcard entry Arthur Cazaux, who beat 28th-ranked Tallon Griekspoor 6-3, 6-3, 6-1.

    French Open finalist and No. 11 seed Casper Ruud lost 6-4, 6-7 (7), 6-4, 6-3 to No. 19 Cam Norrie.

    Azarenka won back-to-back women’s titles here in 2012 and ’13. On Saturday, she took out 2017 French Open winner Jelena Ostapenko 6-1, 7-5 to make the last 16 here for the seventh time.

    She trailed 5-2 in the second before winning five straight games, saving two breakpoints with aces in the last game before serving it out.

    “I’m just ready to give whatever it takes. I’m going to stay out here as long as it needs to be,” Azarenka said. “I love the challenge. It makes me excited. It brings out the best in me.”

    Azarenka’s next opponent will be Ukrainian qualifier Dayana Yastremska, who equaled her best Grand Slam performance with a 6-2, 2-6, 6-1 win over 27th-ranked Emma Navarro.

    Yastremska was coming off first-round exits in her previous seven Grand Slam appearances and hadn’t been to the second week of a major since reaching the round of 16 at Wimbledon in 2019.

    She will next play Oceane Dodin, who beat Clara Burel 6-2, 6-4 in a match between two French women.

    Sloane Stephens, the 2017 U.S. Open champion and a runner-up at Roland Garros the following year, was ousted in a 6-7 (8), 6-1, 6-4 loss to Anna Kalinskaya.

    No. 26 Jasmine Paolini advanced 7-6 (1), 6-4 over Anna Blinkova, who was coming off a big upset win over 2023 finalist Elena Rybakina in the longest tiebreaker in women’s Grand Slam history.

    In the Rod Laver Arena opener, Zheng, a U.S. Open quarterfinalist last year, edged fellow Chinese player Wang Yafan 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (8) to reach the fourth round in Australia for the first time.

    Zheng told the crowd she was motivated by watching Li Na win the Australian Open title in 2014 and was surprised to see later that her tennis inspiration was on site to watch the match.

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  • Top-ranked Swiatek escapes with a narrow win over 2022 runner-up Collins at Australian Open

    Top-ranked Swiatek escapes with a narrow win over 2022 runner-up Collins at Australian Open

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    MELBOURNE, Australia — Top-ranked Iga Swiatek rallied from 4-1 down in the third set to escape with a narrow 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 win over 2022 runner-up Collins on Thursday and advance to the third round of the Australian Open.

    Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz dropped a set for the first time in the tournament before recovering to beat Lorenzo Sonego 6-4, 6-7 (3), 6-3, 7-6 (3) in the following match on Rod Laver Arena.

    In a momentum-swinging opening match, Swiatek was on top after recovering an early break and leading by a set and a break before the American player rallied to take the second set and race to a 4-1 lead with two service breaks in the third.

    Collins had three consecutive points to lead 5-2 but Swiatek absorbed the sustained pressure from her opponent’s powerful groundstrokes until she reversed the momentum on a match-winning five-game roll.

    “Oh my God. I don’t even know,” Swiatek said of how she managed to come back. “Honestly, I was on the airport already. But I wanted to fight to the end.

    “I’m really proud of myself, because it wasn’t easy.”

    Swiatek had two match points at 15-40 in the last game but again Collins rallied, saving those and getting a game point with a trademark forehand winner deep to Swiatek’s backhand side.

    But a forehand long and a backhand wide from Collins gave Swiatek a third match point and she made no mistake this time, flicking a backhand winner down the line to complete victory after 3 hours and 14 minutes.

    Collins announced soon after that 2024 would be her last season on tour.

    In one of the tournament’s toughest opening brackets, both players beat past Australian Open champions in the first round; Swiatek beat 2020 champion Sofia Kenin and Collins overcame 2016 winner Angelique Kerber.

    While Swiatek was doing her on-court TV interview. Collins was already en route to a news conference on site at Melbourne Park, in a much faster exit than usual.

    “Yeah, I lost 6-4 in the third to one of the best players in the world,” Collins said. “And she played some great tennis. (I) left it all on the court.”

    A heavy rain shower at 3-3 in the opening set forced organizers to close the roof on Rod Laver, creating a 25-minute delay.

    After winning three of the next four games to wrap up the first set, Swiatek was down 5-1 and 40-15 in the second. She saved five set points before Collins clinched it, forcing a deciding third set.

    Swiatek, who lost to Collins in the semifinals here two years ago, was again down two service breaks and needed some help.

    “She played just perfectly, but it would be hard for anybody to keep that level,” she said. “So I wanted to be ready when more mistakes are going to come from the other side. And I just wanted to push her and I did that at the end.”

    The four-time major winner next faces No. 50-ranked Linda Noskova, who beat U.S. qualifier Kessler McCartney 6-3, 1-6, 6-4 in a match featuring two players on their Australian Open main draw debuts.

    Fifth-ranked Jessica Pegula was beaten 6-4, 6-2 by Clara Burel. A quarterfinalist in each of the past three years. It was Pegula’s earliest Grand Slam exit since she lost in the second round at Wimbledon in 2021.

    Sloane Stephens, the U.S. Open winner in 2017, took out No. 14 seed Daria Kasatkina 4-6, 6-3, 6-3.

    With a strong breeze to contend with, Alcaraz was tested by Lorenzo Sonego before coming through in four sets.

    “I think both of us played a high level,” Alcaraz said. “The match was a little tricky with the wind and sun, so it was tough to play our best. But even if I lost a set, we played a good match.”

    Two of the early men’s matches went the distance before being decided in 10-point tiebreakers, with Olympic champion Alexander Zverev holding off Lukas Klein 7-5, 3-6, 4-6, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (7) in 4 1/2 hours and No. 11 Casper Ruud edging Max Purcell 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (7).

    “He played incredible. He was hitting every single ball as hard as he could from both sides,” Zverev said of Klein, a No. 163-ranked qualifier from Slovakia. “I didn’t really know what to do most of the times. To be honest, he probably deserved to win the match more than me today.”

    Cameron Norrie, the No. 19 seed, also went five sets, coming from two sets down to beat Italian qualifier Giulio Zepperi 3-6, 6-7 (4), 6-2, 6-4, 6-4 while Alex Michelsen defeated No. 32 Jiri Lehecka 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4.

    Last year’s runner-up Elena Rybakina was set to open the night session on Rod Laver, followed by two-time finalist Daniil Medvedev.

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  • Can too many tennis ball changes cause injuries? Players think so. The tours are checking

    Can too many tennis ball changes cause injuries? Players think so. The tours are checking

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    In the run-up to the Australian Open, defending champion Novak Djokovic’s right wrist was sore — hardly ideal for a tennis player who swings his racket primarily with that arm.

    Cam Norrie, the tournament’s 19th-seeded man, has been dealing with wrist pain, too. As has Brenda Fruhvirtova, one of a trio of 16-year-olds who reached the second round of the women’s bracket at Melbourne Park.

    Djokovic, Norrie and Fruhvirtova were not prepared to blame the ever-changing types of tennis balls used year-round at the sport’s highest levels, but they weren’t necessarily ready to absolve that issue completely, either. For a while now, some players have wondered aloud whether their wrists, elbows, shoulders and other body parts involved in propelling rackets to strike shots at speeds regularly topping 100 mph (150 kph) are at greater risk because of a constant need to adjust to projectiles that are heavier or lighter, slower or speedier, fluffier or more consistent than the ones they were hitting a week or two or three earlier.

    The WTA and ATP professional tours are finally ready to look into the matter, announcing right before this week’s start of the year’s first Grand Slam tournament they are conducting “a strategic review” of tennis balls, although they don’t envision any changes before 2025.

    “I hope they can figure it out. Seems pretty far away,” 2016 Wimbledon runner-up Milos Raonic said. “It seems like they’re kind of kicking the can down the road.”

    Taylor Fritz, a 26-year-old from California who was the highest-seeded American man in Melbourne at No. 12, is among those harboring concerns. He said when the ATP asks male players at the end of each season what they think can be improved about the sport, he always mentions the fluctuations among the fuzzy tennis balls.

    “When I was younger … (I) didn’t get injured too easily. I’ve been really feeling it,” Fritz said.

    “It’s not so much like the specific ball that injures us. In some cases it is. But it’s more just: You get used to one, and then when you change to something that’s a bit heavier, your wrist or your elbow or whatever is taking the force,” he explained. “Everyone is different. Everyone hits the ball different — grips, all that stuff. Whatever is taking the force is now not trained to take that. It’s been trained to take maybe a lighter ball. So it’s just all the switching; it causes problems.”

    According to the WTA, most injuries on its tour over the past four years are to the foot (17%) or thigh (13%). Wrist or shoulder injuries follow and account for a combined 18.5%.

    Ten brands of tennis balls — and 19 distinct types — were used across the WTA in 2023. A similar number of brands popped up around the ATP.

    Imagine the NBA using that many kinds of basketballs … or the NHL using that many kinds of pucks … or the NFL using that many kinds of s … or Major League Baseball using that many kinds of baseballs during one of their seasons … or FIFA using that many kinds of soccer balls during one World Cup. They don’t, of course; each sticks to one brand.

    “I just try and play with what I’m given,” British tennis player Katie Boulter said. “It does change week by week.”

    One significant difference between tennis and some other sports is that surfaces change, prompting ball changes. The Australian Open is contested on hard courts, the U.S. Open is on another sort of hard courts, the French Open is on clay, Wimbledon is on grass.

    Some players, such as two-time major champion Carlos Alcaraz, want consistency within each portion of the season, but right now each tournament chooses its own ball supplier or sponsor. Money, as is often the case in the world of sports, talks.

    Fritz and Alcaraz noted that events during the lead-in to last year’s U.S. Open went with four different balls in a four-week span.

    Fritz and others, such as two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka, pointed to one possible compromise: a universal ball that would vary its branding from week to week.

    “If you ask me, ‘Oh, should we change the balls?’ Yeah, absolutely,” Azarenka said. “We should have similar consistency.”

    ___

    AP Sports Writers John Pye in Melbourne, Australia, and Andrew Dampf in Turin, Italy, contributed.

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  • Coco Gauff and Sabalenka into 3rd round but Jabeur and Wozniacki are out of the Australian Open

    Coco Gauff and Sabalenka into 3rd round but Jabeur and Wozniacki are out of the Australian Open

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    MELBOURNE, Australia — Defending champion Aryna Sabalenka and U.S. Open winner Coco Gauff avoided the early Day 4 upsets at the Australian Open to advance to the third round along with 16-year-old Mirra Andreeva.

    Three-time major finalist Ons Jabeur lost 6-0, 6-2 in 54 minutes to Andreeva in Wednesday’s opening match on Rod Laver Arena and then 2018 champion Caroline Wozniacki also lost to a young Russian on the No. 3 show court.

    Two other 16-year-old players lost their center court matches to highly-ranked players: No. 10 Beatriz Haddad Maia accounted for Alina Korneeva 6-1, 6-2 and Sabalenka overpowered Brenda Fruhvirtova 6-3, 6-2 to open the night session.

    Gauff extended her winning streak to nine matches at Grand Slams with a 7-6 (6), 6-2 win over fellow American Caroline Dolehide.

    Dolehide served for the opening set at 6-5 before U.S. Open champion Gauff took control in the tiebreaker.

    “It was really hard,” Gauff said. “If you give her something short, she’s going to punish you for it, so if I could go back and do something I’d change that.”

    Gauff will next play another American, Alycia Parks, who reached the third round of a Grans Slam singles tournament for the first time with a 7-5, 6-4 win over 32nd-ranked Leylah Fernandez.

    Jabeur, the runner-up at Wimbledon in each of the past two years, made 24 unforced errors against Andreeva.

    “I was really nervous before the match because I’m really inspired by Ons and the way she plays,” said Andreeva, who lost in the final of the junior event here last year. “Before I started on the WTA Tour, I always watched her matches and was always so inspired. Now I had the chance to play against her.”

    It is the second successive year that Jabeur has lost in the second round in Melbourne.

    Wozniacki led by a set and a break before losing 1-6, 6-4, 6-1 to 20-year-old Maria Tomafeeva, who is making her main draw Grand Slam singles debut.

    Wozniacki, who had two children before returning to the WTA Tour last year after 3 1-2 years away, started out on top before Tomafeeva turned the match around with some devastating hitting, including 40 winners.

    “I’m really a bit speechless now,” Tomafeeva said. “It was an honor to play here against Caroline. I was going into the match without any expectations. I enjoyed every second of it.”

    Wozniacki said the match “slid out of my hands . . . it’s definitely disappointing,”

    Jabeur and Wozniacki played their matches under the roof, on Rod Laver Arena and John Cain Arena, respectively, with rain causing the start of matches on the outside courts to be delayed for three hours. It cleared up and the backlog of matches was limited.

    Amanda Anisimova continued her comeback from a seven-month mental health break with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Nadia Podoroska. She’ll next play Paula Badosa, a 6-2, 6-3 winner over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

    In men’s matches, fourth-seeded Jannick Sinner beat Jesper de Jong 6-2, 6-2, 6-2 on Margaret Court Arena, the third stadium at Melbourne Park with a retractable roof.

    U.S. Open semifinalist Ben Shelton, the No. 16 seed, advanced 6-4, 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (5) over local hope Chris O’Connell. He had match points in the 12th game of the fourth set but couldn’t convert, and needed two more in the tiebreaker before advancing.

    A quarterfinalist on debut here last year, Shelton said he enjoyed the atmosphere that the home crowd gave O’Connell and said he could still hear the chant “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi” in his sleep.

    Australia’s highest-ranked player, No. 10 Alex de Minaur, accounted for Matteo Arnaldi 6-3, 6-0, 6-3. De Minaur will next play Flavio Cobolli, an Italian qualifier who beat Pavel Kotov 7-5, 6-3, 5-7, 6-2. No. 12-seeded Taylor Fritz also advanced.

    Novak Djokovic, a 10-time winner of the event, plays local hope Alexei Popyrin in the late match.

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  • Coco Gauff enters the Australian Open as a teenage Grand Slam champion. The pressure is off

    Coco Gauff enters the Australian Open as a teenage Grand Slam champion. The pressure is off

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    MELBOURNE, Australia — Now that the pressure to win a Grand Slam singles title as a teenager is over, Coco Gauff feels liberated enough to discuss her next target: a career tally in double digits.

    Could be 10, 11 or more … no limits. Plus, an Olympic medal in Paris this year. Preferably gold, but silver or bronze would do — in singles, doubles or mixed.

    She’s entering the Australian Open as a reigning Grand Slam champion, new territory for the 19-year-old American. Had she not fulfilled those expectations at last year’s U.S. Open, this would have been her last shot at being a teenage major winner.

    Gauff, who turns 20 in March, believes she can play with more freedom now in pursuit of a second major title as the No. 4 seeded player at Melbourne Park.

    The tournament starts Sunday, a day earlier than usual.

    Defending champion Novak Djokovic, aiming for a recording-extending 11th Australian title and 25th overall, announced ahead of the schedule’s release that he’d be playing Sunday night. Djokovic opens against 18-year-old qualifier Dino Prizmic of Croatia.

    Gauff’s first-round match is against Anna Karolina Schmeiedlova, a 29-year-old from Slovakia who has only been past the third round once in 35 majors.

    Having rebounded from a shocking first-round exit at Wimbledon to winning a breakthrough major title at the very next major in New York has helped with a shift in mindset.

    “I think I put too much pressure on winning a Slam. I think I was feeling like I have to do it,” Gauff said. “When I went on the scene at 15, I felt like I had to win a Slam as a teenager because that’s what everybody thought.

    “Honestly, going into U.S. Open, I didn’t expect it. I felt like I was having a bad season, and my focus was just get through the season and focus on the Australian Open this year.”

    It was the loss at Wimbledon that helped her take pause, relax and think about all those rounds before the final, one-by-one. She’d thought losing in the first round would have been the worst thing to happen to her.

    Turns out, “wasn’t even that bad,” she said. “The world didn’t end. The sun still shines. I still have my friends and family.

    “I realized that losing isn’t all that bad, and that I should just focus on the battle and the process and enjoy it. I found myself being able to play freer and trust myself more.”

    Gauff is in the same quarter of the draw as four-time major winner Naomi Osaka and Caroline Wozniacki, both past Australian Open champions who are returning to Melbourne Park as mothers for the first time.

    Leylah Fernandez, the 2021 U.S. Open runner-up, and No. 8 Maria Sakkari are also there. Defending Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka is in the same half of the draw and could be a semifinal rival.

    Sabalenka had a breakthrough win at Melbourne Park last year and reached the semifinals at the French Open and Wimbledon and the final at the U.S. Open, where she took the first set off Gauff before losing in three.

    In tune-up tournaments, Gauff successfully defended her title in Auckland, New Zealand, last weekend and Sabalenka reached the final in Brisbane.

    Second-ranked Sabalenka said she’s a better player 12 months on from her triumph in Australia.

    “I had an incredible season last year, improved a lot as a player and as a person,” she said. “I did really a great pre-season. We worked a lot. I felt like we improved a lot. I feel really great and feel like I’m ready to go.”

    On the other side of the draw, No. 1-ranked Iga Swiatek is in a tough section, starting with an opener against 2020 Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin. Their only previous meeting was at the 2020 French Open, when Swiatek beat Kenin in the final.

    “My first Grand Slam final was against Sofia and now we’re playing in the first round. It’s pretty weird,” Swiatek said. “That’s how our life journeys kind of went apart.”

    Awaiting the winner of that match is either 2016 Australian Open winner Angelique Kerber, in her comeback from a maternity break, or 2022 finalist Danielle Collins.

    At the bottom of that side of the draw are No. 5 Jessica Pegula and 2021 U.S. Open champion Emma Raducanu, who hasn’t gone past the second round at a major since then and is coming off eight months on the sidelines following operations on both wrists and an ankle.

    On the men’s side, Djokovic has long dominated Melbourne Park. He’s on a 28-match winning streak here — 21 before and seven after the tournament he was forced to miss in 2022 because he wasn’t vaccinated for COVID-19.

    He’s the only one of the so-called Big Three in the field after 22-time major winner Rafael Nadal withdrew last week, his comeback from a year-long injury layoff lasting just three matches.

    Djokovic is establishing new rivalries now, some with much younger players such as 20-year-old Carlos Alcaraz, who beat him in the Wimbledon final, and No. 4 Jannik Sinner, the 22-year-old Italian who beat him twice in a month late last season in the round-robin stage of the ATP Finals and at the Davis Cup.

    Sinner has played some exhibitions since then but not a competitive match ahead of his opener against Botic van de Zandschulp. If the seeds progress on rankings, he could meet Djokovic in the semifinals.

    “Just staying in the present moment, to be honest,” Sinner said. “At the end of the year I played really good. I have still the confidence inside me, for sure.” ___

    AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis

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  • Caroline Wozniacki beats Petra Kvitova at the US Open shortly after coming out of retirement

    Caroline Wozniacki beats Petra Kvitova at the US Open shortly after coming out of retirement

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    NEW YORK — When Caroline Wozniacki finished off the biggest victory of her still-fresh comeback following 3 1/2 years away from tennis, she sat in her U.S. Open sideline chair, leaned forward and covered her face with both hands. Then she leaned back, glanced over at her husband and her father in the stands, and smiled.

    Two gold chains dangled from her neck, each carrying a name written in cursive: Olivia, for her 2-year-old daughter, and James, for her 10-month-old son.

    Yes, Wozniacki clearly made the right choice to come out of retirement and try her hand at this tennis thing again, making it to the third round at Flushing Meadows by beating two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova 7-5, 7-6 (5) in Arthur Ashe Stadium on Wednesday night.

    “This couldn’t be better. It’s a dream come true. If you had asked me three years ago,” Wozniacki said, “I would have said I’ll never be back here, playing on this court.”

    The 33-year-old from Denmark won the 2018 Australian Open and reached No. 1 in the rankings — she’s currently No. 623 — during her first stint on tour. Wozniacki left the sport in early 2020 to start a family, and later spent time working as a TV analyst, and now she and former NBA player David Lee are the parents of two children.

    She returned to competition this month and now is back at Flushing Meadows for the first time since 2019.

    Wozniacki was the runner-up at the U.S. Open in 2009, when she lost to Kim Clijsters in the title match, and 2014, when she lost to her good friend Serena Williams.

    “I love New York. I love this court. I love everything about this city and playing here,” said Wozniacki, who said she planned to hang out with her kids on Thursday. “Absolutely, as soon as I came here over a week ago, I already — instantly — felt so comfortable on these courts and knew that I could play some great tennis and I would be dangerous in the draw.”

    Next up will be a match against 2020 U.S. Open semifinalist and 2021 Australian Open finalist Jennifer Brady, an American who recently came back to the tour after two years off because of injuries.

    This is the third event of Wozniacki’s comeback and she looked quite capable of strong play in her 15th career matchup against the 11th-seeded Kvitova. There were some wobbles, including when Wozniacki held her first two match points at 5-4 in the second set and failed to convert either.

    But her game was good enough to hang in there and pull out the tiebreaker.

    “Obviously we knew each other’s game very well,” Wozniacki said, “but I’m just so happy that I was the one who came out on top today.”

    ___

    AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis

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