Rafael Nadal looked impressive in his Australian Open first-round match, rolling past Russia’s Mikhail Youzhny 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 on Day 1 in Melbourne. Nadal has struggled in his recent matches following an injury-laden second half of 2014, and entered the Australian Open with some question marks. The Spaniard looked extremely sharp against a tough first-round…
On a day that saw a number of seeded women bow out of the Australian Open, second-seeded Maria Sharapova and third-seeded Simona Halep displayed their dominance with convincing wins. First up was Halep who quickly showed that she was over whatever stomach illness had caused her to withdraw from the Sydney International last week. The…
After a dominant first set, fifth-seeded Serbian Ana Ivanovic saw her Australian Open run come to an end at the hands of Lucie Hradecka. The Czech qualifier stormed back from a one set deficit to upset Ivanovic 1-6, 6-3, 6-2 and move on in Melbourne. Ivanovic cruised through the first set in 21 minutes. She…
“All the world's a stage and most of us are desperately unrehearsed,” Irish playwright Sean O’Casey once said. Sloane Stephens was 19-years-old on Quarterfinal Day of the 2013 Australian Open. On one of the most renowned stages of the sport, she faced the biggest moment of her young tennis career. It did not help that…
The first ever all-qualifier ATP World Tour Final will take place on Saturday in Sydney, as Serbia’s Viktor Troicki and Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Kukushkin won their respective semifinal matchups to push through into the final. Each player has won seven matches in a row, including the qualifying, to be at this point. It is a remarkable…
Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic edged out compatriot Karolina Pliskova in two tie-breakers for a 7-6(5), 7-6(6) victory on Friday, winning the Sydney International for her 15th career title. In an intriguing early season matchup, world number four Kvitova took on the red-hot Pliskova, who was competing in her first WTA final (she also…
Heading into the 2015 Australian Open, there are many storylines with a great deal of unpredictable endings in store for the upcoming year. One great of the game proved to the world that age is no barrier in 2014, while another raised questions on just how many times he could get up…
Juan Martin del Potro’s run at the Sydney International tournament came to an end on Thursday as the defending champion fell to Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Kukushkin in the semifinals. Kukushkin prevailed in two sets that each went to tiebreakers for a 7-6(5), 7-6(3) victory. The match featured no break points as each player won every single…
Petra Kvitova exacted some revenge on Thursday as the world number four from the Czech Republic beat Bulgaria’s Tsvetana Pironkova 7-5, 6-1 to advance to the Sydney International final. Pironkova had defeated Kvitova at this exact stage last year on her way to the championship, but this time around Kvitova proved to be too much…
World number four Petra Kvitova received a scare from Australian wild card Jarmila Gajdosova, dropping the first set only to recover for a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 quarterfinal victory. Kvitova was trailing 4-3 on her serve in the third set when the Czech held, won four straight points on Gajdosova’s serve to break and then held…