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Tag: Matteo Berrettini

  • Australian Open lookahead: Djokovic returns after COVID ban

    Australian Open lookahead: Djokovic returns after COVID ban

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    MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — LOOKAHEAD TO TUESDAY

    Novak Djokovic is set to make his return to action at the Australian Open after being banned from the country a year ago because he was not vaccinated against COVID-19. He has won 30 of his past 31 tournament matches dating to the end of last season. He is chasing his 10th trophy at the Australian Open and 22nd Grand Slam title overall, which would tie rival Rafael Nadal for the most by a man in tennis history. Djokovic faces Spain’s Roberto Carballes Baena on Tuesday at Rod Laver Arena in a first-round matchup. No. 2 seed Casper Ruud opens against Tomas Machac, while three-time major champion Andy Murray takes on Matteo Berrettini. The No. 2-seeded woman, two-time Slam runner-up Ons Jabeur, plays Tamara Zidansek, and No. 4 Caroline Garcia faces Katherine Sebov.

    TUESDAY’S FORECAST

    Chance of showers. High of 97 degrees Fahrenheit (36 Celsius).

    MONDAY’S KEY RESULTS

    Women’s First Round: No. 1 Iga Swiatek beat Jule Niemeier 6-4, 7-5; No. 3 Jessica Pegula beat Jaqueline Adina Cristian 6-0, 6-1; No. 6 Maria Sakkari beat Yuan Yue, 6-1, 6-4; No. 7 Coco Gauff beat Katerina Siniakova 6-1, 6-4; No. 13 Danielle Collins beat Anna Kalinskaya 7-5, 5-7, 6-4; No. 15 Petra Kvitova beat Alison van Uytvanck 7-6 (3), 6-2; No. 17 Jelena Ostapenko beat Dayana Yastremska 6-4, 6-2; No. 24 Victoria Azarenka beat Sofia Kenin 6-4, 7-6 (3); Bianca Andreescu beat No. 25 Marie Bouzkova 6-2, 6-4; Marta Kostyuk beat No. 28 Amanda Anisimova 6-3, 6-4.

    Men’s First Round: No. 1 Rafael Nadal beat Jack Draper 7-5, 2-6, 6-4, 6-1; No. 10 Hubert Hurkacz beat Pedro Martinez 7-6 (1), 6-2, 6-2; No. 15 Jannik Sinner beat Kyle Edmund 6-4, 6-0, 6-2; No. 28 Francisco Cerundolo beat Guido Pella 6-4, 6-4, 6-3; No. 16 Frances Tiafoe beat Daniel Altmaier 6-3, 6-3, 6-7 (5), 7-6 (6); No. 20 Denis Shapovalov beat Dusan Lajovic 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1; No. 29 Sebastian Korda beat Cristian Garin 6-4, 1-6, 6-3, 6-2; Alex Molcan beat Stan Wawrinka 6-7 (3), 6-3, 1-6, 7-6 (2), 6-4.

    STAT OF THE DAY

    Zero — Number of main-draw wins at the Australian Open in the professional era by Chinese men until Monday, when 17-year-old qualifier Shang Juncheng beat Germany’s Oscar Otte 6-2, 6-4, 6-7 (2), 7-5.

    QUOTE OF THE DAY

    “Yes, we feel pressure being the top Americans and want to do well for our country, but I feel they’re on the ‘GOAT’ status and we’re not even close to reaching that, so there’s no need for us to put pressure on ourselves for that yet.” — Coco Gauff, asked whether she and Jessica Pegula feel pressure trying to represent the U.S. after all of the Grand Slam success of Serena and Venus Williams sisters.

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    AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

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  • US beats Britain to advance to United Cup mixed teams semis

    US beats Britain to advance to United Cup mixed teams semis

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    SYDNEY — Frances Tiafoe beat Britain’s Daniel Evans 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 on Wednesday to move the United States into the United Cup mixed teams tournament semifinals.

    Tiafoe’s victory gave the Americans an unbeatable 3-1 lead in the best-of-five Sydney City Final.

    It means the U.S. will be among four teams in the semifinal portion of the tournament that begins Friday at Sydney’s Ken Rosewall Arena.

    Earlier, world No. 3 Jessica Pegula gave the United States a 2-1 lead by beating Britain’s Harriet Dart 6-2, 6-0.

    In the afternoon session, Madison Keys moved the U.S. ahead after rallying from a set down to defeat Katie Swan 2-6, 6-3, 6-4. But world No. 14 Cameron Norrie came back to post a 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 win against No. 9 Taylor Fritz to level the match.

    Pegula and Fritz then won the final mixed doubles match to wrap up the 4-1 U.S. win.

    “I think Madi really set the tone with her match,” Pegula said. “I think I did everything really well today. I could feel it. Some days you come out firing and you feel really good. I was honestly trying to settle myself down because I was seeing the ball really well today.”

    Poland and Greece won deciding mixed doubles matches to advance 3-2.

    Iga Swiatek and Hubert Hurkacz defeated Camilla Rosatello and Lorenzo Musetti 6-2, 6-1 to lead Poland past Italy in the Brisbane City Final.

    It was Swiatek’s second win on the day after the World No. 1 beat Martina Trevisan 6-2, 6-4 to pull Poland even at 1-1 following Musetti’s win over Daniel Michalski in the opening match.

    Matteo Berrettini then beat Hurkacz 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 to give Italy a 2-1 before Poland’s Magda Linette forced the decider by beating Lucia Bronzetti 6-1, 6-2.

    ”(It feels) amazing, honestly. I don’t know. I think it’s better winning in a team than individually. I’m so happy that we did it together and team effort for sure paid off,” Swiatek said. “Today’s match was pretty stressful because we (don’t) play mixed doubles usually.

    “But I’m so happy that I was able to play a solid game and Hubi was pushing our opponents and really making it easy for me. So I’m really happy that we played such a nice game.”

    Greece moved on from the Perth City Final as Maria Sakkari and Stefanos Tsitsipas beat Croatia’s Borna Gojo and Petra Martic 7-6 (6), 6-4.

    Donna Vekic beat Despina Papamichail 6-2, 6-0 to put Croatia ahead before Tsitsipas beat Borna Coric 6-0, 6-7 (4), 7-5 on his sixth match point.

    Sakkari then gave Greece a 2-1 lead by beating Martic 6-3, 6-3, before Gojo’s 6-4, 6-2 win over Stefanos Sakellaridis set up the mixed double decider.

    Despite its loss, Italy still qualified as the next best-ranked team and will join the U.S., Poland and Greece in Sydney.

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    More AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis and https://twitter.com/AP—Sports

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