Top seeds Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut successfully began their Australian Open title quest, advancing to the second round with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Adrian Mannarino and Adil Shamasdin in exactly one hour on Thursday. The all-French duo next face Jerzy Janowicz and Marcin Matkowski.
Sam Querrey and Donald Young caused the biggest upset in the doubles draw thus far, ousting defending champions and second seeds Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares in the first round. The Americans needed to capitalise on just their one break point chance in the 72-minute match for a 6-3, 7-6(5) win over the British/Brazilian team. Next up for Querrey and Young in the second round is the all-Russian duo of #NextGenATP star Karen Khachanov and Andrey Kuznetsov.
Sixth seeds and 2016 ATP Finals runners-up Raven Klaasen and Rajeev Ram advanced to the second round with a 6-3, 7-5 win over Aliaksandr Bury and Paolo Lorenzi. No. 7 seeds Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo, a new team for 2017, beat Swedes Johan Brunstrom and Andreas Siljestrom 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 for a meeting in the second round with Nicholas Monroe and Artem Sitak.
Eighth seeds Daniel Nestor and Edouard Roger-Vasselin needed just 57 minutes to beat Andres Molteni and Diego Schwartzman 6-0, 6-4. A clash with home hopes Marc Polmans and Andrew Whittington awaits the Canadian/French team in the second round.
Elsewhere, tenth seeds Treat Huey and Max Mirnyi came from a set deficit to defeat Leander Paes and Andre Sa 4-6, 7-6(3), 6-4. Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah, the No. 14 seeds, beat brothers Ken Skupski and Neal Skupski 6-3, 6-4 and Jurgen Melzer and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi ousted No. 13 seeds Mate Pavic and Alexander Peya 6-4, 2-6, 7-5.
Defending champion Novak Djokovic suffers a shock defeat by world number 117 Denis Istomin in the second round of the Australian Open.
| Australian Open 2017 |
|---|
| Venue: Melbourne Park, Melbourne Dates: 16-29 Jan |
| Coverage: Daily live commentary on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra; live text on selected matches on the BBC Sport website; TV highlights on BBC Two and online from 21 January. |
Britain’s Andy Murray has no injury worries heading into his third round match against American Sam Querrey at the Australian Open on Friday.
The world number one was assessed by a doctor after rolling his right ankle in Wednesday’s win over Andrey Rublev.
Murray is due to feature in the second game on the Hisense Arena in Melbourne, where play begins at 00:30 GMT.
British number four Dan Evans is also in action as he takes on Australia’s Bernard Tomic following Murray’s match.
Murray admitted his ankle still felt sore on Thursday, but the Scot was able to practice unhindered and spent an hour and a half training on Court 17 at Melbourne Park.
“Thankfully I can put weight on it and I was moving around fine in practice,” said the 29-year-old. “Once I started moving around it felt all right.”
Murray has reached the Australian Open final five times and lost on each occasion, with four of those final defeats coming against Novak Djokovic.
The Scot replaced Djokovic as number one in the world last November and, after the Serb suffered a shock second-round exit to world number 117 Denis Istomin, Murray is being touted as the favourite to win in Melbourne.
“You always pick the number one in the world as favourite, so I had Andy Murray,” two-time Australian Open finalist Pat Cash told BBC Radio 5 live. “But five matches is a long way to go.”
Murray remains focused on Friday’s meeting with Querrey, who beat Djokovic at Wimbledon last year and knocked Jamie Murray and partner Bruno Soares out of the men’s doubles on Thursday.
“The most important thing will be to serve well because that then puts pressure on his service games,” said the British number one.
“I’ll just try to make as many returns as I can. Once I get in the rallies I should do OK.”
Murray’s compatriot Evans is aiming to make it past the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time.
He previously beat Tomic in four sets in the second round of the US Open in 2013, but Tomic won their last encounter at the 2015 Davis Cup.
The pair also met in Miami in 2012 when Tomic’s father suggested Evans – then ranked in the 300s – was not good enough to practice with his son.
“I’m not going to bother saying anything about that again,” Evans said.. “He confronted me about that. We’ll leave it at that.”
Defending champion and world number one Angelique Kerber will play Czech Kristyna Pliskova, four months after beating her twin Karolina in the US Open final.
Fourth seed Stan Wawrinka plays Serbian Viktor Troicki while Roger Federer will face 17th-seeded Czech Tomas Berdych.
Canadian Eugenie Bouchard, who reached the Wimbledon final in 2014, meets American Coco Vandeweghe and Venus Williams plays China’s Ying-Ying Duan.
Novak Djokovic has “lost his edge” and is “a shadow of what he was at his peak”, says 1987 Wimbledon champion Pat Cash.
The defending champion lost in five sets in round two of the Australian Open to world number 117 Denis Istomin.
The Serb, 29, won four Grand Slams in a row between 2015 and 2016 but has made only one of the past three finals.
“If we were doubting it before, we confirmed he’s not the same player he was six months ago,” said Cash.
Speaking to BBC Sport, the Australian added: “[Thursday’s defeat] just shows that Novak has absolutely lost his edge, there’s no doubt about that.”
Djokovic – who has slipped to number two in the world with Andy Murray taking the top spot in the rankings – completed a career Grand Slam in June 2016 when he beat Murray in the French Open final, but has struggled for form since then.
The loss to Istomin was Djokovic’s earliest exit from the Australian Open since 2006, when he was beaten in the first round by American Paul Goldstein.
“I’d love to see him competing, to be a true number two fighting for that number one spot, but at this rate I don’t think we will see that,” Cash said.
“It’s clear that it’s a mental thing. He’s done everything he needed to do and wanted to do in his career.”
Six-time Australian Open champion Djokovic double-faulted nine times in an error strewn performance against Istomin.
He denied he had lost intensity since completing the career slam, adding that he “forgot about it” when he began a new season.
“It’s not a time now to go so deep into it. I didn’t reflect on that at all at this stage,” he said.
“It’s just that, it’s one of these days when you don’t feel that great on the court, don’t have much rhythm, and the player you’re playing against is feeling the ball very well.”
Since winning the French Open in June, Djokovic has been knocked out in the first round of the Rio Olympics and lost both his US Open title and his status as world number one.
“It’s not like this technique has fallen off. There’s obviously a big confidence thing, but now he makes mistakes and it is a mental thing,” Cash added.
“Maybe it’s his time to say I’m not quite the same player that I was but I can still perform well.”
| Australian Open 2017 |
|---|
| Venue: Melbourne Park, Melbourne Dates: 16-29 Jan |
| Coverage: Daily live commentary on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra; live text on selected matches on the BBC Sport website; TV highlights on BBC Two and online from 21 January. |
Six-time Australian Open champion Serena Williams reached the third round with a straight-sets win over world number 61 Lucie Safarova on Thursday.
The American, 35, attempting to win an Open Era record 23rd Grand Slam singles title, won 6-3 6-4 in Melbourne.
Czech Safarova, who lost to Williams in the 2015 French Open final, failed to convert any of her six break points.
“I’m really happy to have got through that,” said world number two Williams, who won in one hour and 25 minutes.
“It’s never easy having to play in a second round against someone you have seen in a final. I’ve played two former top-10 opponents, but it’s a great way to start the tournament.”
Williams lost the Australian Open final last year to Angelique Kerber, but went on to win at Wimbledon and equal Steffi Graf’s Open era record of 22 Grand Slam singles titles.
She will continue her bid for the record against 23-year-old Nicole Gibbs, who beat fellow American Irina Falconi 6-4 6-1.
Poland’s world number three Agnieszka Radwanska suffered a surprise second-round exit to Croatia’s Mirjana Lucic-Baroni.
The 27-year-old, who has reached two semi-finals in Melbourne in the past three tournaments, lost 6-3 6-2 to the 34-year-old world number 79.
Fifth-seed Karolina Pliskova beat 18-year-old Russian qualifier Anna Blinkova 6-0 6-2 in 59 minutes, meaning the Czech has dropped just four games en route to the third round.
“I don’t want to say my opponent wasn’t that good, but I was better,” said the 24-year-old, who faces Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko next.
Third seed Milos Raonic reached the third round of the Australian Open for the seventh time with a 6-3 6-4 7-6 (7-4) win over Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller.
The Canadian 26, hit 21 aces as he set up a meeting with France’s Gilles Simon, who reached the quarter-finals in Melbourne in 2009.
“I started feeling a little bit of a cough but I didn’t think much of it, then this morning I felt pretty bad waking up,” he said.
“I came out with the sort of idea of put everything into the match, try to solve it, understand the importance of the mental side of things in that situation.”
World number 15 Grigor Dimitrov also moved into the next round with a 1-6 6-4 6-4 6-4 victory over Korea’s Chung Hye-on.
He will face France’s Richard Gasquet after his 6-1 6-1 6-1 win over Argentine Carlos Berlocq. Former world number three David Ferrer beat American qualifier Ernesto Escobedo 2-6 6-4 6-4 6-2 to set up a tie with Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut.
| Australian Open 2017 |
|---|
| Venue: Melbourne Park, Melbourne Dates: 16-29 Jan |
| Coverage: Daily live commentary on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra; live text on selected matches on the BBC Sport website; TV highlights on BBC Two and online from 21 January. |
Britain’s Jamie Murray and Brazilian partner Bruno Soares have been knocked out in the men’s doubles first round by Sam Querrey and Donald Young.
The defending champions and second seeds lost 6-3 7-6 (7-5) in one hour and 12 minutes on Thursday.
American pair Querrey and Young will face Russians Karen Khachanov and Andrey Kuznetsov in the second round.
Querrey also plays world number one Andy Murray in the men’s singles third round on Friday.
Britain’s Dan Evans was due to play in the doubles alongside Nick Kyrgios against Dusan Lajovic and Viktor Troicki on Thursday, but the Australian has withdrawn because of injury concerns.
Kyrgios said he sustained a knee injury playing basketball several weeks ago.
The 21-year-old lost to Andreas Seppi in the men’ singles on Wednesday, while Evans progressed to the third round after beating world number seven Marin Cilic.
They have been replaced in the draw by Argentines Renzo Olivo and Guido Pella.