Azarenka wins, Muguruza hurt
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AFTER two injury-hit seasons, Victoria Azarenka is emerging from the shadows of some highly-ranked rivals who have either withdrawn from Australian Open warmup events or lost in the early rounds.
The two-time Australian Open champion reached the quarterfinals of the Brisbane International — a tournament she won in 2009 — with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Belgian Ysaline Bonaventure.
Bonaventure, a lucky loser from qualifying, was cast into the second round yesterday as a replacement for top-seeded Simona Halep, who had a bye before withdrawing from a scheduled second-round match with Azarenka because of an Achilles tendon problem. The No. 2-ranked Halep withdrew within an hour of defending champion Maria Sharapova pulling out of the tournament with a left forearm injury.
Third-seeded Garbine Muguruza joined the Brisbane injury procession late yesterday when she retired in the second set of her match against Varvara Lepchenko.
Muguruza lost the first set 6-7 (9) before quitting with a left foot injury. The Spanish player called for a trainer and was granted a medical timeout, but retired after losing the first game of the second set.
Top-ranked Serena Williams withdrew from the Hopman Cup in Perth after skipping her first match and retiring in the second set of the US team’s second against Australia Gold because of inflammation in her left knee.
Venus Williams and Ana Ivanovic — the top two seeded players at the ASB Classic in Auckland, New Zealand — were beaten in the first round.
Azarenka, who dropped to a year-end No. 22 ranking in December after being restricted to just 23 events across 2014 and 2015, is working her way back into form.
“I definitely missed playing since I haven’t in a while,” she said. As for the broader issue of injuries, she said: “I’m just going to try to take care of myself right now, and hopefully everybody will be ready for the Australian Open.”
Fourth seed Angelique Kerber beat Madison Brengle 6-3, 6-0 to set up a meeting with Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, while Andrea Petkovic had a 7-5, 6-4 win over Ekaterina Makarova to move into a quarterfinal against US qualifier Samantha Crawford, who upset seventh-seeded Swiss Belinda Bencic 7-5, 7-5.
In the men’s draw, second-seeded Kei Nishikori opened with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Mikhail Kukushkin to move into the quarterfinals against seventh-seeded Bernard Tomic, a 7-6 (6), 4-6, 7-6 (4) winner over Radek Stepanek.
At the Hopman Cup mixed teams event in Perth, Andy Murray, appearing to be affected by a right leg ailment, lost to Australia Green’s Nick Kyrgios 6-4, 7-6 (6). But Britain’s Heather Watson came back to beat Daria Gavrilova 6-7 (2), 6-2, 7-5 to send the match to a mixed doubles decider.
Germany leveled its record at 1-1 with a 2-1 win over France (0-2).
In Auckland, third-seeded Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark had a 6-0, 6-2 win over Christina McHale and Sloane Stephens beat Carina Witthoeft 3-6, 6-1, 6-3.
Austrian qualifier Tamira Paszek beat two-time grand slam champion Svetlana Kuznetsova and British qualifier Naomi Broady reached the quarterfinals with a 4-6, 7-6 (4), 7-5 win over Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia.
In Shenzhen, top seed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland sailed into the quarterfinals of the Shenzhen Open but three other seeded players were knocked out in the second round yesterday.
Radwanska, who won last year’s WTA finals, scored a 6-1, 7-5 win over Chinese player Zhang Shuai.
Third-seeded Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania retired when trailing 5-7, 2-3 against Anna-Lena Friedsam of Germany.
In other upsets, fourth-seeded Monica Niculescu of Romania lost 1-6, 4-6 to Timea Babos of Hungary while seventh-seeded Zarina Diyas of Kazakhstan lost 0-6, 4-6 to Czech Katerina Siniakova.
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