Thursday, 28th March 2024
To guardian.ng
Search
News  

Australian Open Day Four: Djokovic, Wawrinka advance, Australia’s favourites out

By Jacob Akindele
22 January 2015   |   7:57 pm
WORLD number one and tournament top seed Novak Djokovic advanced to the third round, a domineering performance against Andrey Kuznetsov of Russia, ranked 88 in the world.  The first set was over in 21 minutes, without losing a game.    At 0-4 down in games, the Russian challenged a shot to his baseline. It was…

WORLD number one and tournament top seed Novak Djokovic advanced to the third round, a domineering performance against Andrey Kuznetsov of Russia, ranked 88 in the world.  The first set was over in 21 minutes, without losing a game. 

  At 0-4 down in games, the Russian challenged a shot to his baseline. It was a period of comic relief but the shot has truly on the line. The Russian changed tactics in the third game of the second set, with a foray to the net on his serve. 

  He won the game, giving the crowd the opportunity to cheer loudly and he raised his hands up in jubilation. But Djokovic won the next four games to take the set at 6-1.

  The third set provided some action for the crowd. The Russian broke Djokovic in the second game to take a 2-0 lead, but in a long game, the Champion broke back and followed with a service game in which he did not lose a point. The Russian won the ninth game before Djokovic served out the match, at 6 games to 4.

  Djokovic is a master of the game, knowing when to keep the ball in play when on the defensive and with a perfect timing as to when to go on the offensive, and to go for the winning shot when there is the opening for it. Tennis games are lost, not won!

  After the match, Jim Courrier asked him about his game and his twitter page. The Champion expressed satisfaction that everything went as he planned. Also he stated that he did most of the twitting himself, finding it a relief from the tennis.  He gave the greater credit to his Coach Boris Becker, as being more active at twitting.

  The defending Champion and fourth seed, Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland faced Mariu Copil of Romania. He won the first tie break, in 48 minutes. The second set also went the full stretch and was decided by tie break which the champion won in 48 minutes. There was more action in the third set. 

  At 2 games apiece, there was a long rally in the 5th game which Stan took and promptly followed by breaking the Rumanian to lead 4-2.  The challenger took his next service but another break gave Stan the opportunity to serve out the match at 6 games to 3.

The day saw the exits of home favourites, Lleyton Hewitt and Samantha Stosur. Hewitt took the first two sets but his opponent from Germany, Benjamin Becker took the next three, as the Australian veteran ran out of energy.  Final score was 2-6; 1-6; 6-3; 6-4; 6-2.

  Samantha Stosur (seeded 20 in the tournament) lost to American player Coco Vandeweghe.  The scores of 6-4; 6-4 did not reflect the closeness of the contest. The American played an outstanding match in which she served 12 aces. After the match, she expressed satisfaction at achieving her set goal of reaching the third round of a Grand slam event in 2015. 

  She gave the credit for her meteoric rise to her new Coach from Poland who made her carry the Polish flag after Poland won the 2015 Hopman Cup.

0 Comments