Azarenka crushes Sharapova for title, No. 1 ranking
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP)—Victoria Azarenka routed Maria Sharapova 6-3, 6-0 Saturday to win the Australian Open singles title and take over the No. 1 ranking in women’s tennis.
Azarenka, playing in her first final in 25 Grand Slam tournaments, was broken in the opening game of the match by Sharapova and trailed 2-0 before taking advantage of 16 Sharapova unforced errors to win the first set in 46 minutes.
The 22-year-old Belarusian broke Sharapova’s service to open the second set and never looked threatened to clinch the title in 1 hour, 22 minutes.
The winner of the match had the added bonus of taking over the top ranking vacated by Caroline Wozniacki when she lost in the quarterfinals.
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U.S. 15-year-old Townsend wins girls’ event
MELBOURNE—A lot of cool things happened to 15-year-old Taylor Townsend on her trip to Australia this month. She got a few kangaroo souvenirs for her family, and a couple of koala bear trophies. She watched Roger and Rafa go at it—“I was in shock,” Townsend said of their rallies. She played inside Rod Laver Arena, made a Hawk-Eye challenge, and, for good measure, completed a rare sweep of the girls’ singles and doubles events. But all of that may have paled in comparison with her biggest find at Melbourne Park: four official Australian Open towels, sitting in the sun, unattended.
You must realize that these aren’t any old towels. The pros take them by the thousands each year. Rafael Nadal said today that he has 10 of them himself. So you can understand Townsend’s excitement when she stumbled upon them. “I was surprised I saw four towels,” she said, flashing her braces in a wide grin. “Like two towels on one seat, two towels on the other. I was like, ‘Whoa, I’m gonna snag these.
“That’s exactly what I did.”
It’s been a banner Aussie Open for Townsend in many ways. Seeded 14th and competing in just her second junior Grand Slam, she became the youngest winner of an junior singles title here since her friend Donald Young did it at the same age six years ago. The two prodigies share more than just that piece of trivia. Both are left-handed, both are African-American, both hail from Chicago, and both have trained with Young’s parents, Donald, Sr., and Alona, in Atlanta. That’s where Townsend says she learned the attacking game and accomplished net play that may set her apart from her peers in the future. “Ever since I was young,” the apparently not-that-young-anymore Townsend says, “when I started playing tennis, we always did volleys. Mr. Young and Ms. Young, they always taught me just to move forward.”
Townsend says with a matter of fact smile that she has “pretty good hands.” Those hands were in evidence in her three set win over Yulia Putintseva of Russia in today’s girls’ final, a histrionical affair that ended with the loser smashing her racquet over and over and the winner falling to a scorched rubberized court before overflowing with that she called “tears of joy.” Townsend, who switched last year to the Prince EXO3 and began using the company’s Beast brand of spin-producing polyester strings, won the match with powerful forehands and two-handed backhands, some well-timed, precociously savvy net play, and a heavy, cutting lefty serve. Its motion, perhaps not surprisingly, bears more than a passing resemblance to Young’s.
“She has a great feel for the game,” says USTA director of player development Patrick McEnroe. Townsend left Atlanta last year to train at the USTA’s center in Boca Raton, Fla. “She has that easy power you love to see, and more variety than most of the girls. I think it’s a game that should translate well at the pro level.”
McEnroe also likes the fact that she’s working with what he calls a “tight-knit group of girls at Boca.” That group includes 17-year-old Grace Min, last year’s U.S. Open junior champion, and 16-year-old Madison Keys. “I think it’s when you get those groups together that you see success at the higher level.” For U.S. tennis fans waiting for their next women’s champion, these are signs for cautious optimism.
“We practice together,” Townsend says of her days at Boca with Keys and Min. “We push each other.”
What’s next for Townsend? She seems ready for more, right away. A reporter asked her today if she was ready to “slow yourself down and not push success too fast?”
The outgoing Townsend didn’t hesitate with her answer. “No,” she said, “I mean, I’m just gonna keep doing what we’ve been doing. I’m playing a pro tournament in about a week. It’s a great opportunity, It’s a 100,000 [dollar tournament, in Midland, Texas], so I’m just gonna go there and do my thing.”
The fun stuff, the koalas and the kangaroos, is over fast, and the pro grind beckons. “You want a balance,” McEnroe says of how Townsend should proceed from here. “A mix of competition—play the big junior events and ease into women’s events, try to get into the Top 100 this year. The big thing is that she keeps playing her game.”
Townsend is currently ranked No. 426, so there’s work to be done in 2012. But after this Aussie Open, when she’s back sweating with her friends on the hot courts in Boca, she’ll know what she’s playing for and what a big title feels like. And she’ll have a few nice towels to keep herself dry.
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Fish, Isner to lead U.S. Davis Cup vs. Swiss
U.S. captain Jim Courier names Mardy Fish, John Isner, Mike Bryan, and Ryan Harrison to the Davis Cup team that will face the Swiss away in Fribourg, Feb. 10-12
Mike’s twin Bob is skipping the tie as his wife Michelle is due to give birth to their daughter on January 29. Andy Roddick is injured and has declined to play.
World No. 3 Roger Federer and No. 22 Stanislas Wawrinka lead the Swiss on indoor clay court.
“We have the toughest you can have draw in Davis Cup,” said Courier. “It’s the ultimate test. It’s going to be a big battle, but we have nothing to lose. We have to go out and lay it on the line and we know we are underdogs, but we’ll give it a rip.”
No. 17 Isner has won a small clay court title and No. 8 Fish won two matches against Columbia on outdoor clay in a playoff match.
“John likes the clay, likes the slow court,” Courier said. “Mardy grew up in Florida and slides well. It’s not the surface we’d have chosen to pick, but I don’t think it’s a problem for us.”
Federer has not played a main draw World Group match since 2004. He’ll lineup against Isner on the first day.
“It’s not a match he can wait to come to him, he has to take it to Roger and shorten points,” Courier said. “He needs to be explosive. That’s no mystery and certainly won’t be a surprise to Roger.”
Courier added that it is unlikely that the teenager Harrison will play a live rubber. Sam Querrey was considered for the team, but is nursing a sore knee.—Matt Cronin
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Nadal: Murray blew chance vs. Novak in 4th
Rafael Nadal says that Andy Murray blew a sizeable chance in his 6-3, 3-6, 6-7 (4) 6-1, 7-5 loss to Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open semifinals.
“He always played fantastic. He’s unlucky not to win a Grand Slam yet,” Nadal told reporters. “Yesterday he lost another very good opportunity. Because winning two sets to one, winning the third set, probably losing a lot chances, and then winning with 7-6 to win a tournament like this and to play against player like Djokovic, you cannot start the fourth set like this. It’s the moment to play with more intensity than ever, not start with 3-0 down and two breaks in five minutes. That way you lose the match. You want to win the tournament, the other can beat you, but you cannot lose in the beginning… He was unlucky at the end, but the only negative thing for me in his match is the beginning of the fourth. When the other have more doubts, is in really trouble, you make for the opponent easier than what should be, no? For the rest, he can be No. 1 at the end of the season. The level is there. When you are able to play how many, five Grand Slams in a row playing semifinals or final, it’s only a mental thing.”
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Nadal: Murray blew chance vs. Djokovic in 4th
Rafael Nadal says that Andy Murray blew a sizeable chance in his 6-3, 3-6, 6-7(4) 6-1, 7-5 loss to Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open semifinals.
“He always played fantastic. He’s unlucky not to win a Grand Slam yet,” Nadal told reporters. “Yesterday he lost another very good opportunity. Because winning two sets to one, winning the third set, probably losing a lot chances, and then winning with 76 to win a tournament like this and to play against player like Djokovic, you cannot start the fourth set like this. It’s the moment to play with more intensity than ever, not start with 3Love down and two breaks in five minutes. That way you lose the match. You want to win the tournament, the other can beat you, but you cannot lose in the beginning… He was unlucky at the end, but the only negative thing for me in his match is the beginning of the fourth. When the other have more doubts, is in really trouble, you make for the opponent easier than what should be, no? For the rest, he can be No. 1 at the end of the season. The level is there. When you are able to play how many, five Grand Slams in a row playing semifinals or final, it’s only a mental thing.”
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Final Chat: Sharapova vs. Azarenka
On Saturday, January 28 at 3:30 am EST, senior editor Richard Pagliaro will provide commentary and analysis of the women’s final between Maria Sharapova and Victoria Azarenka.
Australian Open Final Chat: Maria Sharapova vs. Victoria AzarenkaOriginal post by TENNIS.com – Headlines
Women’s Final Chat: Sharapova v. Azarenka
On Saturday, January 28 at 3:30 am EST, senior editor Richard Pagliaro will provide commentary and analysis of the women’s final between Maria Sharapova and Victoria Azarenka.
Australian Open Final Chat: Maria Sharapova vs. Victoria AzarenkaOriginal post by TENNIS.com – Headlines
Murray upset with late-night drug testing
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP)—Andy Murray had just spent nearly five hours on court in an Australian Open semifinal loss to Novak Djokovic that ran past midnight.
Then he found out drug testers were looking for him.
“Just a bit annoyed … I know the players go on about it a lot, but they’ve changed these rules with the drug test,” Murray said. “I’ve just done the drug test, the urine test.”
But there was more—a blood test.
“They just told me I need to sit down for 30 minutes before I can give blood,” Murray said. “I want to get out of here, so I’m annoyed with that, which on top of losing a match like that, it’s really a frustrating thing to have to go through at 1:00 in the morning.”
It’s not the first time Murray has criticized doping control officials.
At the 2009 U.S. Open, he complained when drug testers visited his Manhattan hotel room at 7:15 a.m. on a day off to test him.
He said at the same time that three days before Wimbledon that year, an anti-doping official came his house in Surrey near London after 9 p.m., even though he had put down 7 a.m. to 8 a.m. as his one-hour “slot” to be available to drug testers that day.
“I just think it’s a little bit in your face, the whole thing,” Murray said then.
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Murray thinks he’s closing gap with Big 3
Despite his 6-3, 3-6, 6-7 (4) 6-1, 7-5 defeat to Novak Djokovic in the semifinals of the Australian Open, Andy Murray believes he has made progress and can be a substantial threat to the top-ranked Serbian, No. 2 Rafael Nadal and No. 3 Roger Federer. Murray has yet to win a major, but has reached the final four of the last five Grand Slams.
“Tonight’s match was important for many reasons,” Murray told reporters. “Obviously I wanted to win first and foremost. But also sort of after last year, the year that Novak’s had, I think there’s a very fine line between being No. 1 in the world and being 3 or 4. I think that gap, I feel tonight I closed it. My job over the next two or three months is to surpass him and the guys in front of me. So take a lot of hard work, and hopefully I can do it.”
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Djokovic edges Murray in five to reach final
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP)—Novak Djokovic overcome his breathing problems and fatigue to beat his old friend Andy Murray in an almost five-hour Australian Open semifinal Friday night and move into his third straight Grand Slam final.
Standing between Djokovic and a record shared by some of the greatest players of all time will be No. 2-ranked Rafael Nadal, a man he beat in six tournament finals in 2011.
Despite appearing tired and sore from the second set, Djokovic rallied to beat Murray 6-3, 3-6, 6-7 (4), 6-1, 7-5 in a rematch of the 2011 final at Melbourne Park.
After wasting a chance to serve out the match at 5-3 in the fifth and letting Murray back into the contest, Djokovic cashed in his first match point when the Scottish player missed a forehand after four hours, 50 minutes.
“You have to find strength in those moments and energy, and that keeps you going,” he said. “At this level, very few points decide the winner.
“I think we both went through a physical crisis. You know, him at the fourth set, me all the way through the second and midway through the third. It was a very even match throughout, from the first to the last point.”
Djokovic dropped onto his back, fully laid out on the court. He got up and shook hands with Murray, before jogging back out onto the court like a boxer, dropping to his knees and crossing himself.
It was already after 12:30 a.m. Saturday when he got up again and pumped his arms triumphantly.
“Andy deserves the credit to come back from 2-5 down. He was fighting. I was fighting,” Djokovic said. “Not many words that can describe the feeling of the match.
“Evidently it was a physical match … it was one of the best matches I played. Emotionally and mentally it was equally hard.”
It was a bitter setback for Murray, who lost the previous two Australian finals.
Djokovic finished last year at No. 1 after winning three of the four majors, including a straight-sets win over Murray in the Australian final. His only loss at a Grand Slam in 2011 was against Roger Federer in the French Open semifinals.
It was phenomenal season after previously only winning one major—the 2008 Australian Open—and not returning to a final for 11 Grand Slams.
“To be honest, I think I matured as a player. I started to believe on the court I could win majors,” he said. “Rafa and Roger are the most dominant players for the last seven, eight years. … It was very hard to take away the titles from them. They will not give you the titles. You have to earn it.”
He is now aiming to be only the fifth man in the Open Era started in 1968 to win three straight majors—only Rod Laver, Pete Sampras, Federer and Nadal have achieved it before him, with only Laver going on to complete the Grand Slam by winning all four majors in a season.
The Australian great was in the arena named in his honor to watch Friday night’s semifinal, as he had been when 2009 Australian Open winner Nadal came back from a set and a break down to beat four-time champion Federer in four sets the previous night.
Djokovic’s 70-6 win-loss record in 2011 included those six wins over Nadal in finals—including Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.
Both players had their form dips, but Djokovic’s were more obvious. He led by a set and a break before Murray started coming back at him. Then Djokovic started walking gingerly and appeared to be struggling for breath—just as he had been in his straights sets quarterfinal win over No. 5-ranked David Ferrer.
At one point, he pointed to his nose and seemed to indicated to his support group that he was having trouble breathing.
He stayed in the points, despite Murray scrambling and trying to get him involved in long rallies.
“You try to get energized in every way,” he said. “A lot of liquids, try to eat something, as well, that gives you energy.”
He put his breathing problems down to allergies, and said he’d seen a doctor for it.
After losing a tight tiebreaker and virtually conceding the fourth set, Murray rallied again after slipping behind 5-2 in the fifth. He broke Djokovic at love when the Serb was serving for the match on a three-game streak that put all the pressure back on the defending champion.
But Djokovic composed himself and seemed to be gathering energy as the match wore on. He held serve and then broke Murray to finish it off.
“I’m extremely delighted to be in the final,” Djokovic said. “What can be a bigger challenge than playing against Rafa Nadal, one of the greatest players ever.
“I’m going to try to recover. Obviously it’s going to be physical as well. So I need to do some push-ups tonight.”
Despite being friends and childhood rivals, this was only the second meeting between Djokovic and Murray at a Grand Slam. Djokovic beat Murray in the 2011 Australian final and had a 6-4 lead in their overall head-to-heads at tour level.
Murray won the Brisbane International and came into the semifinal on a 10-match winning streak and with new coach, eight-time major winner Ivan Lendl, in his support crew.
The blue-and-white crossed Scottish flags fluttered in the crowd, held by fans with the flag painted on their faces and some wearing their tartan Tam hats. The support was evenly split at Rod Laver Arena, encouraging both players in the tense final set.
The Maria Sharapova vs. Victoria Azarenka women’s final on Saturday night is being previewed in the local media as a battle of the two loudest grunters on the tour. Azarenka, who won the Sydney International title the weekend before the season’s first major, is bidding to continue her winning shriek.
Sharapova has won three majors, but none since the 2008 Australian Open. Azarenka will be playing her first Grand Slam final.
The winner will move to the top of the women’s rankings. Caroline Wozniacki, who came into the tournament as No. 1, will drop three places after her quarterfinal loss to 2011 champion Kim Clijsters.
Russians Svetlana Kuznetsova and Vera Zvonareva won the women’s doubles final on Friday with a 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 victory over the Italian duo of Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci.
Bethanie Mattek-Sands and her Romanian partner Horia Tecau advanced to the mixed doubles final with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Indian pair Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupathi.
In the men’s doubles final Saturday, American twins Bob and Mike Bryan are aiming for a Grand Slam record 12th major when they take on Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek.
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