Serena, Halep, Federer fumble in difficult start to 2017 season
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SERENA Williams lost her second-round match at the ASB Classic and the 22-time grand slam singles champion, frustrated by swirling winds, didn’t leave quietly.
“At least I can get out of these conditions,” No. 2-ranked Williams said after her 4-6, 7-6 (3), 4-6 loss yesterday to fellow American Madison Brengle.
“I would say it’s my least favorite conditions I’ve ever played in. Again my opponent played in the exact same conditions. She was able to adjust better than me. I really abhorred these conditions,” Williams said after the match in Auckland, New Zealand.
It was Williams’ second match since a four-month layoff to rest various injuries after her semifinal loss at the US Open in September. She’s now off to Melbourne for the Australian Open, which begins on January 16, and an opportunity to go one better than Germany’s Steffi Graf, with whom she shares the Open-era record of 22 grand slam titles.
It was a bad day for the Williams family in Auckland, with Serena’s sister Venus withdrawing because of a right-arm injury from her second-round match.
Serena had showed signs of rustiness in her 6-3, 6-4 first-round win over Pauline Parmentier of France, and her power-hitting game was again affected by gusting wind on the open-air center court. She struggled with her ball toss in the windy conditions and made 88 unforced errors, including a double-fault on match point.
Brengle had played Serena only once, in 2015, losing 0-6, 1-6.
In other second-round matches, third-seeded Caroline Wozniacki beat Varvara Lepchenko 6-3, 6-3, No. 4-seeded Barbora Strycova rallied past Czech compatriot Lucie Safarova 7-5, 3-6, 7-6 (4) and sixth-seeded Jelena Ostapenko had a 6-2, 7-6 (3) win over Mirjana Lucic-Baroni.
In Shenzhen, south China’s Guangdong Province, Simona Halep’s preparations for the Australian Open took a hit when the second-seeded Romanian was beaten by Katerina Siniakova 3-6, 6-4, 5-7 in the second round of the Shenzhen Open.
Halep, the 2015 champion, was broken four times in the final set. Altogether, the two players combined for 15 breaks of serve in the match.
Also, Kristyna Pliskova of the Czech Republic advanced with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Chang Kai-chen of Chinese Taipei, and Nina Stojanovic of Serbia defeated Ons Jabeur of Tunisia 4-6, 6-3, 6-3. Also, home player Zheng Saisai lost to Camila Giorgi of Italy 7-6 (5), 5-7, 4-6.
In Perth, Australia, Roger Federer found himself overmatched — just — by a younger and stronger-serving opponent yesterday, losing 6-7 (1), 7-6 (4), 6-7 (4) to 19-year-old Alexander Zverev of Germany in the Hopman Cup.
The 35-year-old Federer was playing just his second match since returning from a six-month layoff because of a left knee injury. He led 5-2 in the first set, but ran into an opponent whose first-serve percentage exceeded 80 percent midway through the final set of the 2 1/2-hour match in the mixed teams tournament.
Federer’s Swiss teammate Belinda Bencic later beat Andrea Petkovic 6-3, 6-4 and then the duo teamed up to uppend Petkovic and Zverev 4-1, 4-2 in mixed doubles, played in the Fast4 format, to complete the 2-1 victory.
Switzerland also won its opening match against Britain. France and Switzerland will now play for a spot in the final when they conclude round-robin play today.
Earlier, France’s Kristina Mladenovic and Richard Gasquet won to give France victory over Britain. Mladenovic beat Heather Watson 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 before Gasquet defeated Dan Evans 6-4, 6-2. Gasquet and Mladenovic later defeated Evans and Watson 4-3, 4-3 in mixed doubles.
In Brisbane, world No. 4 Stan Wawrinka began the new season with a straight-sets victory over Viktor Troicki in his Brisbane International debut yesterday.
Second seed Wawrinka edged Troicki 7-6 (5), 6-4 to maintain his perfect record against the Serbian whose seventh attempt at beating the Swiss failed. The three-time grand-slam set up a quarterfinal clash with Briton Kyle Edmund.
Third seed Kei Nishikori had to work harder to secure his quarterfinal berth with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 win over free-swinging American Jared Donaldson.
The Japanese star now meets Australian Jordan Thompson who upset eighth seed David Ferrer 4-6, 7-5, 7-5 for the biggest win of his career to reach his first ATP World Tour quarterfinal.
In the women’s section, world No. 1 Angelique Kerber survived a big scare from Australian wildcard Ashleigh Barty to progress to the quarterfinals. The reigning Australian and US Open champion held on to win 6-3, 2-6, 6-3.
World No. 5 Dominika Cibulkova also advanced with a hard-earned 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory over Zhang Shuai of China.
Fifth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova won 6-4, 6-3 over local favorite Destanee Aiava who beat Bethanie Mattek-Sands on Tuesday to become the first player born this century to win a WTA main-draw match.
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