The Star Online: Sports
The Star Online: Sports |
- Djokovic, Serena cruise, Robson gives Brits boost
- Unknown Darcis basks in the sun after sinking teeth into Nadal
- Serena lets her racquet talk by racking up 32nd successive win
| Djokovic, Serena cruise, Robson gives Brits boost Posted: 25 Jun 2013 04:35 PM PDT LONDON: Top seeds Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams cruised into the Wimbledon second round on Tuesday as the All England Club recovered from the shockwaves of Rafael Nadal's exit 24 hours earlier. World number one Djokovic, the 2011 champion, beat Germany's Florian Mayer 6-3, 7-5, 6-4, in the Serb's first grass-court outing of the season and his first match since his shattering five-set semi-final loss to Nadal at the French Open. "It was a big pleasure to play in front of a packed Centre Court against a tricky rival like Mayer. He's got a great variety of shots and his game is well-suited to grass," said Djokovic, who next faces Bobby Reynolds of the United States. Defending champion Williams, chasing a sixth Wimbledon title and 17th major, racked-up her 32nd successive win, cruising to a 6-1, 6-3 win over Luxembourg's Mandy Minella. Her 57-minute romp on Centre Court briefly deflected attention away from the storm surrounding her controversial comments on a US high school rape case and the fall-out from her criticism of Maria Sharapova's love life. The 31-year-old took out her frustrations on the hapless Minella, the world number 92 who has never defeated a top-30 player let alone one of Williams's calibre whose French Open title three weeks ago took her majors haul to 16. Victory was also her 75th in her last 78 matches, a run that stretches back to her shock first round departure at Roland Garros in 2012, the worst Grand Slam exit of her career. Tuesday's 32nd successive win took her to within just three of the record set by older sister Venus in 2000. "I never think about the run, I just treat every match like a new one," said Williams. "It was special coming out as defending champion. I played great and I have some great memories." Williams did not concede a single point on her serve in the first set and finished the match with 25 winners to Minella's five. She goes on to face French qualifier Caroline Garcia, who she beat in the second round in Paris, for a place in the last 32. Russia's Maria Kirilenko, who made the quarter-finals last year, slumped to a first round exit at the hands of Britain's world number 38, Laura Robson, who claimed a 6-3, 6-4 win. "That was a big one for me just because of all the nerves and playing in front of your home crowd at Wimbledon," said Robson, a former junior champion. On a bad day for Russians, 21st seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova slumped to a 6-0, 6-1 loss to Bulgaria's Tsvetana Pironkova who made the semi-finals in 2010. Russian 13th seed Nadia Petrova went out 6-3, 6-2 to Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic. Kimiko Date-Krumm, just three months shy of her 43rd birthday, made the second round with a 6-0, 6-2 win over Carina Witthoeft, an 18-year-old German qualifier, who was just four when the Japanese star made her Wimbledon debut in 1989. "I'm taking care of my body, because of course the most difficult thing is recovery. I need more training. But if I do too much I feel tired," said Date-Krumm, a semi-finalist in 1996. "I like Chinese tea. Sometimes Japanese tea. I drink a lot. I have a tea pot I always I carry. It's here with me now." Li Na, the Chinese sixth seed, enjoyed a comprehensive 6-1, 6-1 defeat of Dutchwoman Michaella Krajicek. The 31-year-old former French Open champion next faces Romania's Simona Halep. "It was a pretty good start to Wimbledon. Because the last two years I didn't do well on the grass court," said Li, twice a quarter-finalist. "I have to get used to playing on the grass. I was feeling pretty happy." Polish fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska enjoyed a 6-1, 6-1 win over Austrian qualifier Yvonne Meusberger. Radwanska, the runner-up to Williams last year, next faces Mathilde Johansson of France. In the men's first round, Spanish fourth seed David Ferrer beat Argentina's Martn Alund 6-1, 4-6, 7-5, 6-2. Bulgarian 29th seed Grigor Dimitrov, the man at the centre of the Williams-Sharapova spat, cruised past Italy's Simone Bolelli, 6-1, 6-4, 6-3. Argentinian eighth seed Juan Martin del Potro, who missed the French Open through illness, saw off Spain's Albert Ramos 6-2, 7-5, 6-1. Australia's Bernard Tomic put out American 21st seed Sam Querrey, 7-6 (8/6), 7-6 (7/3), 3-6, 2-6, 6-3. Tomic, a quarter-finalist in 2011, was playing without his controversial father in the crowd. John Tomic, who is facing a criminal charge in Spain for assaulting his son's hitting partner, has been banned from the club by Wimbledon authorities. -AFP |
| Unknown Darcis basks in the sun after sinking teeth into Nadal Posted: 25 Jun 2013 04:25 PM PDT STEVE Darcis basked in his nickname of 'Shark' as he sunk his Belgian teeth into Rafael Nadal on Monday, but his reaction to discovering who he was playing at Wimbledon was not so intimidating. "S***!," said the world No. 135 when asked what his initial thoughts were when he had been drawn to face the 2008 and 2010 champion in the first round. It was a reasonable reaction for a 29-year-old who has never got beyond the second round at the All England Club in his career and arrived in London having won just two matches on the Tour all year. On the other side of the net was Nadal, fresh from a record eighth French Open title, having won 43 of 45 matches and seven titles since his return from a seven-month injury lay-off in February. But Darcis, buoyed by having defeated top 10 player Tomas Berdych on the Wimbledon grass at the Olympics, knew he had a chance if he could exploit the grasscourt uncertainty caused by Nadal's lack of action on the surface this year. Darcis's nickname comes from having a tattoo of shark on his right shoulder. "Why? Because my astrology sign is fish. I love sharks. It's like an S, like Steve. So I did it like few years ago, and that's why," he explained. On his disappointing year, he added: "I had many injuries and many problems, like private. Really, I couldn't play for two, three months. I was playing really bad. "I was also a little bit unlucky. Two times I lost with match points two weeks in a row." Darcis, with career titles at Amersfoort in 2007 and Memphis the following year, now faces the less attractive prospect of taking on Poland's Lukasz Kubot for a place in the third round which would equal his best performance at a major. "This is my biggest win, so I have to be happy," said Darcis. "I heard also this is the first time Nadal lost in the first round of a Grand Slam, so it's even tougher I think for him. "Maybe he was not in the best shape ever. Maybe he didn't play his best match. "But I have to be proud of me, I think. "I played a great match and I fight from the beginning till the end, and I played unbelievable tennis." — AFP |
| Serena lets her racquet talk by racking up 32nd successive win Posted: 25 Jun 2013 05:02 PM PDT LONDON: Five-time Wimbledon champion Serena Williams shrugged off her bitter rift with Maria Sharapova to rack up her 32nd successive win with a 6-1, 6-3 triumph over Luxembourg's Mandy Minella in the first round yesterday. World No.1 Williams came into her title defence opener at the centre of a storm for her controversial comments on a US high school rape case and for her dig at Sharapova's romance with her own ex-boyfriend, Bulgarian player Grigor Dimitrov. The 31-year-old took out her frustrations on the hapless Minella, the world No. 92 who has never defeated a top-30 player, let alone one of the calibre of Williams, whose French Open title three weeks ago took her majors haul to 16. Victory was also her 75th in her last 78 matches, a run that stretches back to her shock first round departure at Roland Garros in 2012, the worst Grand Slam exit of her career. Yesterday's 32nd successive win took her to within just three of the record set by older sister Venus in 2000. "I never think about the run, I just treat every match like a new one," said Williams after her 57-minute win. "It was special coming out as defending champion. I played great and I have some great memories." Williams did not concede a single point on her serve in the first set but Minella, playing in only her eighth Grand Slam compared to the American's 52nd, at least had the consolation of breaking her opponent's serve for a 2-0 lead in the second set. But she couldn't capitalise on that slim opening and Williams roared back, finishing the match with 25 winners to Minella's five. Williams goes on to face French qualifier Caroline Garcia, who she beat in the second round in Paris, for a place in the last 32. In another match, Kimiko Date-Krumm rolled back the years as the Japanese veteran thrashed German teenager Carina Witthoeft 6-0, 6-2 also in the first round. At 42, Date-Krumm is the oldest player competing in the main draw at the All England Club, but age trumped youth on Court 14 as she crushed Witthoeft, an 18-year-old qualifier, in just 44 minutes, hitting 17 winners to her opponent's two. Date-Krumm had won just once in her last five matches, but the world No. 84 is ranked 109 places above Witthoeft and she ruthlessly exposed her young opponent's lack of experience. Witthoeft was making her Wimbledon debut and her first appearance at a Grand Slam. In contrast, Date-Krumm was playing in her 103rd Grand Slam match and competing at Wimbledon for the 12th time. Date-Krumm, who next faces Romania's Alexandra Cadantu, said she carefully manages her training schedule to avoid burn-out and drinks a lot of Chinese tea. "I'm taking care of my body, because of course the most difficult thing is recovery. I need more training. But if I do too much, I feel tired," she said. Li Na, the Chinese sixth seed, raced into the second round with a comprehensive 6-1, 6-1 defeat of Dutchwoman Michaella Krajicek. The 31-year-old former French Open champion next faces Romania's Simona Halep. "It was a pretty good start to Wimbledon. Because the last two years I didn't do well on the grass court," said Li, twice a quarter-finalist. "I have to get used to playing on the grass." — AFP |
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