Easy for Nadal, Wozniacki survives scare
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Rafael Nadal had to wait while Caroline Wozniacki saved two match points and worked her way back into the Australian Open in the preceding match on Rod Laver Arena.
Nadal, the 2017 runner-up, wasted no time in reaching the third round, dropping only one service game — while serving for the match — and making just 10 unforced errors in a 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (4) win over Leonardo Mayer yesterday.
“It’s an important victory for me, I mean, he’s a tough opponent. Leonardo is a player with big potential,” said Nadal, who won the French and US Opens last year but had his preparation for Australia delayed because of an injured right knee. “After a while without being on the competition ... second victory in a row, that’s very important.”
There was more drama earlier on the center court and Margaret Court Arena, when second-seeded Wozniacki and 2008 runner-up Jo-Wilfried Tsonga had to come back from big deficits.
Wozniacki was 1-5 down and facing two match points in third set against No. 119-ranked Jana Fett before deciding she had no choice but to attack.
“That was crazy,” Wozniacki said after winning the last six games in a memorable 3-6, 6-2, 7-5 victory. “I don’t know how I got back into the match. I was like, ‘This is my last chance.’
“At 5-1, 40-15, I felt like I was one foot out of the tournament. She served a great serve down the T — it was just slightly out. I was kind of lucky.”
Wozniacki won the next nine points, and 24 of the 31 points played from when she first faced match point. She clinched a 75-minute third set on her first match point when Fett netted a backhand.
The former No. 1-ranked Wozniacki will next play No. 30 Kiki Bertens, who beat Nicole Gibbs 7-6 (3), 6-0.
Tsonga rallied from 2-5 in the fifth to overcome Denis Shapovalov 3-6, 6-3, 1-6, 7-6 (4), 7-5 in a 3-hour, 37-minute match that contained one of his nonchalant between-the-legs shots on an important point.
In what shapes as an entertaining showdown, he’ll meet No. 17-seeded Nick Kyrgios in the next round.
Kyrgios had a 7-5, 6-4, 7-6 (2) win over Viktor Troicki, overcoming audio problems at Hisense Arena and complaining to chair umpire James Keothavong, who ended up turning off his microphone.
Keothavong’s night got slightly worse when Troicki hit an errant backhand return that slammed directly into the chair umpire’s head during the tiebreaker.
The Serbian player walked, smiling, to the umpire’s chair to apologize, while Keothavong joked, “It’s not my day, is it?”
Marta Kostyuk came from the other angle. The 15-year-old qualifier followed up her first-round win over 25th-seeded Peng Shuai with a 6-3, 7-5 victory over wildcard entry Olivia Rogowska.
The Australian Open junior champion last year, who entered the season-opening major ranked No. 521, Kostyuk became the youngest player since Martina Hingis in 1996 to win main draw matches at the season-opening major.
Things will get harder for her now, against fellow Ukrainian and No. 4-seeded Elina Svitolina, who had a 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 win over Katerina Siniakova.
Alize Cornet beat No. 12-seeded Julia Goerges 6-4, 6-3, knocking the sixth of eight seeds out of that quarter of the draw.
French Open winner Jelena Ostapenko struggled at times before beating Duan Yingying 6-3, 3-6, 6-4.
Among the seeded men advancing were No. 6 Marin Cilic, who beat Joao Sousa 6-1, 7-5, 6-2, and No. 10 Pablo Carreno Busta, No. 23 Gilles Muller and No. 28 Damir Dzumhur.
Ryan Harrison beat No. 31 Pablo Cuevas 6-4, 7-6 (5), 6-4 and Kyle Edmund had a straight-sets win over Denis Istomin, who beat then defending-champion Novak Djokovic in the second round here last year.
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