MELBOURNE: With Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic among the walking wounded and Serena Williams already deciding not to defend her title, injuries and absentees have been the focus of attention ahead of the Australian Open.
That’s not bothering Roger Federer, who is returning as defending champion just 12 months after entering the season-opening Grand Slam tournament seeded 17th and uncertain of his prospects after six months off the tour with an injured left knee.
He beat Nadal in a five-set final for his 18th Grand Slam title — and his first since 2012 — and later won Wimbledon.
“I just thought that the game and the wins weren’t going to come ... because I would just run into a red-hot Djokovic or Murray or Nadal or somebody and my game wasn’t going to be good enough,” Federer recalled. “I had all these great five-setters and, at the end, the epic match against Rafa. After six, seven matches, you start feeling like a different player, that you can’t miss any more. The fifth set (of the final) was maybe the best set I ever played.
“What a comeback it was and it was definitely the highlight of the year.”
Second-seeded Federer and No. 14-seeded Djokovic have almost traded places.
This time, Federer breezily walked into the Australian Open draw carrying the trophy just a few days after helping Switzerland win the Hopman Cup mixed team even. His 2017 comeback could be inspiration for the likes of Djokovic, who has won the Australian title a record six times but has been sidelined since Wimbledon with a right elbow injury.
They’re in the same half of the draw — along with No. 4 Alexander Zverev, No. 5 Dominc Thiem, No. 7 David Goffin and No. 9 Stan Wawrinka, the 2014 Australian Open winner who is also returning from injury.
Nadal skipped the year-end championship last November and delayed the start of his 2018 season, so he’s also had only exhibition matches to see how his right knee has recovered.
“If I’m not feeling good, probably I will not be here,” Nadal said after his error-filled loss to Richard Gasquet in an exhibition this week. “So that’s the good news.”
Five-time finalist Andy Murray withdrew more than a week ahead of time, deciding to have surgery on a right hip problem that had kept him off the tour since Wimbledon. Kei Nishikori also withdrew.
And so if the 2017 Australian Open was one for the ages — the revival of the Federer- Nadal rivalry and another Williams sisters final — the 2018 edition is shaping as a survival of the fittest.
Serena Williams, who was pregnant when she beat Venus here last year to claim her 23rd major title, gave birth to her first child — Alexis Olympia — in September. She said it didn’t leave her enough time to feel confident of winning a major.
The No. 1-ranking changed seven times in 2017, with five different women assuming top spot — three for the first time.
Venus Williams says Serena is “here in spirit” supporting her in Australia, where she’s hopeful of ending an almost decade-long Grand Slam title drought. At 37, Venus is seeded No. 5, coming off a loss to former No. 1 Anglique Kerber in Sydney and has a tougher opener against Belinda Bencic, who combined with Federer last week to win the Hopman Cup.
“I feel my biggest expectation is from myself,” Venus Williams said, dismissing any notion that age or expectations will weigh heavily on her. “No one ever wants to let themselves down.”
She led the WTA Tour in prize money last year ahead of Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza and Simona Halep, who ended the year at No. 1.
Entering as the No. 1 seed for the first time at a major and at a tournament where she’s had back-to-back first-round exits, two-time French Open finalist Halep opens against teenage wild-card entry Destanee Aiava. She could face two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova in the third round and Karolina Pliskova in the quarters.
Muguruza, who withdrew from the Sydney International before the quarterfinals with a sore right thigh after retiring during her first match at the Brisbane International because of cramping, is in the same quarter as US Open finalist Madison Keys, Australian Open 2016 champion Kerber and five-time major winner Maria Sharapova, returning to Melbourne two years after a failed doping test here led to a 15-month suspension.
Muguruza is expecting the constant changes at the top of the women’s game to continue in 2018.
“I don’t feel there’s somebody that different from the rest,” Muguruza said. “This is going to be a very interesting year. A lot of changing, I feel.”
No. 2 Caroline Wozniacki, who hasn’t won a major and last appeared in a Grand Slam final in 2014, is on the bottom half of the draw with Williams and has French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko and last year’s Australian semifinalist CoCo. Vandeweghe in her quarter.
While there were four different Grand Slam singles winners on the women’s side, with Ostapenko (French) and Sloane Stephens (US Open) claiming their first titles, the men’s side rolled back the years with Federer and Nadal each winning two apiece.
Djokovic, a surprise second-round loser here last year, is hoping he can get fit enough to change that in 2018.
“I’m still not 100 percent — hopefully in three or four days I will be there,” Djokovic said after beating Thiem in an exhibition match at Kooyong this week. “I played better than I thought might happen, and most importantly I played without pain.”
The 12-time major winner said he was doing everything possible to be ready in time for the Australian.
“I’ll be over the moon if I can play,” he said. “Everything at the moment is going in the right direction.”
After one for the ages, Australian Open now survival of the fittest
After one for the ages, Australian Open now survival of the fittest
Paul Waring shoots 61 in Abu Dhabi to set 36-hole record on European tour with 19-under par
ABU DHABI: Paul Waring hit the shot of his life to complete a career-low 11-under 61 in the second round of the Abu Dhabi Championship on Friday and establish a five-stroke lead heading into the weekend of the European tour’s first playoff event.
The No. 229-ranked Englishman hit a draw with a 3-wood from about 260 yards to inside 4 feet at No. 18 and tapped in the birdie putt to move to 19-under par for the tournament.
The European tour confirmed to The Associated Press that it is the lowest 36-hole score to par in the tour’s history.
Waring, who opened with a 64 on Thursday, made nine birdies and an eagle in a bogey-free round at Yas Links and set a course record.
“I’ve got a nice lead at the moment but even before I tee off tomorrow, someone might have caught me,” said the 39-year-old Waring, whose sole win came at the Nordea Masters in 2018. “While I’m in the lead at the moment, and if we are rational about this, everyone is still going to fire a lot of
birdies in there.
“So if I’m going to be involved on Sunday afternoon, I’ve still got to keep going the way I am and I know that.”
First-round leader Tommy Fleetwood of England (68), Johannes Veerman of the United States (67) and Danish players Niklas Norgaard (65) and Thorbjorn Olesen (67) were tied for second place on 14 under.
Rory McIlroy hit his tee shot into a greenside bunker at the par-3 17th and made a triple bogey on the way to a second successive 67, leaving him nine strokes off the lead.
McIlroy, who can clinch a sixth Race to Dubai title with a win this week, was 7 under after 13 holes of his second round and feels he’ll need to produce something similar to reel in Waring and his closest chasers.
“I need the golf course to firm up a little bit and toughen up a little bit to have a chance,” McIlroy said. “There’s so many gettable holes out there.”
Zheng advances to WTA Finals championship match with semifinal win over Krejcikova
- Zheng, 22, awaits top-seeded Aryna Sabalenka or third-seeded Coco Gauff in the final on Saturday
RIYADH: Olympic gold medalist Zheng Qinwen became the first tournament debutante to reach the championship match at the WTA Finals since 2021 with a 6-3, 7-5 victory over Barbora Krejcikova in Riyadh on Friday.
The seventh-seeded Zheng needed one hour and 40 minutes to overcome the Wimbledon champion in their semifinal encounter, firing nine aces along the way.
Zheng led 6-3, 3-0 before the eighth-seeded Krejcikova launched a comeback attempt but the Chinese star regained control of the match to make it two wins from two clashes with the Czech.
Zheng, 22, awaits top-seeded Aryna Sabalenka or third-seeded Coco Gauff in the final on Saturday, as she bids to become the first player to win the WTA Finals on her maiden appearance since Ashleigh Barty in 2019.
“It feels so special because this is my first WTA Finals and right now I’m in the final, which is unbelievable. She’s a really good player, today we gave a good match,” said Zheng.
“It was tricky because at 3-0 I think I dropped my performance; suddenly my performance went down, and she played more free and I was suddenly 3-4 down. I gave so much control to myself to not panic too much. It shows I was mentally strong in that moment.”
Zheng was near untouchable on serve in the 40-minute opening set, dropping just one point behind her first delivery en route to a 6-3 lead.
The Olympic champion broke twice for a 3-0 advantage in the second set and looked on her way to a comfortable victory.
But Krejcikova had other ideas and she halted Zheng’s momentum by attacking her second serve to grab the next four games and inch ahead for the first time in the contest.
It became a tug of war but it was Zheng who found an opening, breaking in game 12 to put herself in the position to serve for the match.
The fight wasn’t over yet as Zheng had to save a break point and saw a first match point slip away before she wrapped up the win on her second chance when a Krejcikova forehand sailed wide.
Since the event’s inauguration in 1972, Zheng is only the second Asian player to reach the decider at the WTA Finals after Li Na pulled off that feat in 2013.
PSG to curb political slogans in wake of ‘Free Palestine’ banner
- PSG promised to “guarantee the absence of political messages” in the stands
- “The club was not aware of the plan to display such a message“
PARIS: Paris Saint-Germain say they will make sure there is no repeat of a midweek unfurling by fans of a banner proclaiming “Free Palestine.”
The huge banner covered an entire section of the stadium at the Parc des Princes Wednesday night ahead of PSG’s defeat at the hands of Atletico Madrid.
As well as the slogan “Free Palestine,” the banner showed a bloodstained Palestinian flag, a gesticulating man with a keffiyeh scarf covering all his face except his eyes, the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem and a young boy wrapped in the Lebanese flag.
On Friday, after a meeting with the French football federation and government officials, PSG promised to “guarantee the absence of political messages” in the stands.
“A frank and constructive dialogue made it possible to identify solutions that PSG is committed to putting in place from the next match at the Parc des Princes,” a government spokesperson told AFP.
The banner, which was unfurled by the Paris Ultras Collective (CUP) hard-core fan group, was shown above another slogan which read: “War on the pitch but peace in the world.”
“The club was not aware of the plan to display such a message,” PSG said in a statement Wednesday evening.
Al-Hilal win again to pile pressure on Gerrard at Al-Ettifaq
- Three fine goals from Aleksandar Mitrovic, Malcom and Mohammed Al-Qahtani did the damage
RIYADH: Al-Hilal returned to the top of the Saudi Pro League on Friday, defeating Ettifaq 3-1 to rack up the pressure on under-fire coach Steven Gerrard.
Three fine goals from Aleksandar Mitrovic, Malcom and Mohammed Al-Qahtani did the damage as the champions moved a point clear of Al-Ittihad, who won 2–0 at Al-Orubah on Thursday.
The loss means that Ettifaq, who started the season with three straight wins, have taken just one point from the last six games in the league. It may mean a nervous international break for Gerrard, though the Liverpool legend will know that this was a battling performance from his players, who just did not quite have the quality when needed.
While Ettifaq tried to keep it tight at the back, it was not all one-way traffic. Moussa Dembele had a couple of opportunities when the ball simply wouldn’t fall for him and Karl Toko-Ekambi shot just over from the left side, though it could have been a mishit cross.
All know, however, that you have to be ruthless and clinical when playing the 19-time Saudi champions as wastefulness is almost always punished. It took the Blues some time to get going but they started to look ominous as half-time approached.
Just before the break, Al-Hilal should have taken the lead. This season Mitrovic has been lethal inside the area and the league’s leading scorer was picked out in space near the penalty spot; the stadium held its breath but former Fulham teammate Marek Rodak got his foot to the low shot and Malcom fired the rebound wide.
Mitrovic didn’t miss in added time. Renan Lodi picked up possession on the left and the Brazilian then bent a beautiful low cross behind the Ettifaq defense and Mitrovic could not miss from inside the six-yard box for his 11th of the season.
Ettifaq were still very much in the game and ten minutes after the restart, Toko-Ekambi stretched for a low cross, and while the Cameroonian did make contact and forced a good save from Yassine Bounou, it was a great chance.
The easterners thought they were going to regret that as Mitrovic had the ball in the net once more but his close-range header was ruled out for offside. There was a lengthy VAR review but it only confirmed the referee’s original decision.
The second goal did come eventually, and when it did — in the 81st minute — it was one to remember, for the home fans at least. Malcolm was running in from the left side of the area when he was found by a smart backheel from Abdullah Al-Hamdan. The Brazilian then took the ball past the goalkeeper with his first touch and then rolled the ball home.
It seemed that there was no coming back from that — Hilal are not a team that gives up two-goal leads — but as injury time started, Ettifaq were handed a lifeline in the shape of a penalty, and up stepped Vitinho to place the ball into the bottom corner.
Unfortunately for the visitors, it served just to wake up the hosts, who quickly restored their two-goal lead, though Gerrard angrily told officials that Mitrovic had committed a foul in the build-up. The home fans enjoyed the goal, however, as Malcom fed Mohammed Al-Qahtani who turned 360 degrees to make a little space in the area and then fired a low shot home.
It got even worse for Ettifaq as Abdullah Radif was sent off for shoving Ali Al-Bulaihi in the neck. There really was no coming back from that.
All in all, it was a perfect evening’s work for Al-Hilal, even if Saudi Arabia coach Herve Renard will be a little concerned that star man Salem Al-Dawsari seemed to pick up an injury — with the trip to Australia for a vital World Cup qualifier next Thursday.
Elsewhere, Al-Ahli bounced back from their defeat in the Jeddah Derby to defeat Al-Raed 2-0.
Paul Waring shoots 61 in Abu Dhabi to set 36-hole record on European tour with 19-under par
- Waring, who opened with a 64 on Thursday, made nine birdies and an eagle in a bogey-free round at Yas Links
- Rory McIlroy made a triple bogey on No. 17 in his second successive 67
ABU DHABI: Paul Waring hit the shot of his life to complete a career-low 11-under 61 in the second round of the Abu Dhabi Championship on Friday and establish a five-stroke lead heading into the weekend of the European tour’s first playoff event.
The No. 229-ranked Englishman hit a draw with a 3-wood from about 260 yards to inside 4 feet at No. 18 and tapped in the birdie putt to move to 19-under par for the tournament.
The European tour confirmed to The Associated Press that it is the lowest 36-hole score to par in the tour’s history.
Waring, who opened with a 64 on Thursday, made nine birdies and an eagle in a bogey-free round at Yas Links and set a course record.
First-round leader Tommy Fleetwood of England (68), Johannes Veerman of the United States (67) and Danish players Niklas Norgaard (65) and Thorbjorn Olesen (67) were tied for second place on 14 under.
Rory McIlroy made a triple bogey on No. 17 in his second successive 67 and was nine strokes off the lead.
McIlroy can clinch a sixth Race to Dubai title with a win this week.
