Australian Open 2017
Australian Open 2017
Jan132017
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| 32 British Basketball League (BBL) and Women’s British Basketball League (WBBL) games live on the BBC Sport website, app and connected TVs this season. |
Britain’s world number one Andy Murray will play Ukraine’s Ilya Marchenko in the Australian Open first round.
Murray was drawn in the same quarter as Roger Federer – meaning the pair could face each other in the last eight.
Murray is chasing a fourth Grand Slam title of his career and his first in Melbourne, where he has reached the final five times.
Britain’s word number 10 Johanna Konta will face Kirsten Flipkens from Belgium.
Konta’s draw places her in the same quarter as Slovakia’s Dominika Cibulkova and American champion Serena Williams.
Defending champion Novak Djokovic will be aiming for a record seventh Australian Open title with a first round match against Fernando Verdasco.
If Murray can safely find a way through his first ever week as a top seed at a Grand Slam, then he may have the chance to avenge last year’s US Open quarter-final defeat to Kei Nishikori.
But Roger Federer may have something to say about that. Now seeded 17, after six months out through injury, the 17-time Grand Slam champion is in Nishikori’s section of the draw.
All the British men will face opening round opponents outside the world’s top 50, but the women have a tougher draw.
Kirsten Flipkens brings the experience of a Wimbledon semi-final into her match with Johanna Konta, while Heather Watson and Naomi Broady must both face seeded Australians.
Sam Stosur has a very poor record in front of her home fans, however, which should give Watson cause for optimism.
Spain’s Verdasco knocked his compatriot Rafa Nadal out in the opening round last year, but went on to lose to Djokovic in their recent clash at the Qatar Open.
Nadal, seeded ninth, will play German Florian Mayer before a possible quarter-final against Canadian Milos Raonic.
In the women’s draw, Williams is aiming for her 23rd grand professional slam title.
Her first match will be against Swiss Belinda Bencic.
Defending champion Angelique Kerber will play 61st-ranked Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko.
World number one Kerber is aiming for her third Grand Slam win following her maiden US Open title last year.
At the Sydney International on Thursday, Konta had a 6-2 6-2 win over Eugenie Bouchard.
Britain’s top tennis executive has resigned to take up a similar position in his homeland at Tennis Canada.
Lawn Tennis Association chief executive Michael Downey will serve a six-month notice period that will see him remain in place until after Wimbledon.
“I’ve been honoured to have led the LTA over the last three years,” he said.
“I am hugely proud of the foundations the team at the LTA have laid in order to turn participation in Britain’s beloved sport around. “
He added: “It’s an exciting time for tennis in this country and I look forward to the next six months, maintaining the momentum we’ve built in our continued mission to get more people playing tennis, more often.”
Sock leads Johnson 2-1 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series
American Steve Johnson upset countryman and friend John Isner 6-3, 4-7, 7-6(3) in two hours and 14 minutes on Thursday for a place in the ASB Classic semi-finals. Johnson won 85 per cent of his first-serve points and overcame 19 Isner aces.
Isner netted a forehand volley to bring up three match points for Johnson in the third-set tie-break. He’d need only one, though, as he hit a forehand net-cord winner on the next point.
Johnson, the seventh seed, will meet fourth-seeded American and last year’s finalist Jack Sock, who converted four of his 25 break point opportunities to beat Jeremy Chardy of France 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 in two hours and 10 minutes. Sock hit 12 aces to Chardy’s 14 aces.
Joao Sousa saved both break points to reach his first Auckland semi-final after he defeated Dutchmen Robin Haase 6-3, 6-2 in 57 minutes.
The Portugal native now challenges eighth seed Marcos Baghdatis, who struck 12 aces to overcome 2015 champion Jiri Vesely 6-2, 6-4 in 70 minutes. This week, Baghdatis is bidding to win his first ATP World Tour trophy since the 2010 Apia International Sydney.
DOUBLES: Fourth seeds Marcin Matkowski and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi saved one match point at 8/9 in the Match tie-break to beat Santiago Gonzalez and David Marrero 6-4, 3-6, 11-9 for a place in the semi-finals. Nicholas Monroe and Artem Sitak also saved one match point at 8/9 in the Match tie-break of their 3-6, 7-6(5), 11-9 victory over Facundo Bagnis and Diego Schwartzman.
British No. 3 and Muller score upsets on day five
World No. 67 Daniel Evans recorded the biggest win of his career on Thursday at the Apia International Sydney for a place in his second ATP World Tour semi-final (2014 Zagreb).
The 26-year-old Briton notched his first victory over a player in the Top 10 of the Emirates ATP Rankings (1-4 lifetime) after beating No. 8-ranked Dominic Thiem, the top seed, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 in two hours and two minutes.
Evans goes on to play World No. 48 Andrey Kuznetsov, who broke a 10-match losing streak in ATP World Tour quarter-final in defeating fourth seed Pablo Carreno Busta 2-6, 6-4, 6-1. Carreno Busta beat Kuznetsov last year in the Winston-Salem Open quarter-finals en route to his first tour-level trophy.
Sixth seed Gilles Muller advanced to the semi-finals for the third consecutive time. The Luxembourg native beat second seed Pablo Cuevas 7-6(5), 6-4. As is often the case, the left-handed Muller dominated with his serve, hitting 17 aces and taking 77 per cent of his first-serve points. He’ll face third seed and two-time defending champion Viktor Troicki in the semi-finals on Friday.
“(Troicki) hasn’t lost a match in Sydney in, like, forever,” said Muller. “He beat me in the semis two years ago. I know he’s a great player – he’s up there for a long time and it’s going to be a tough match. For me it’s the third year in a row for the semi-finals so I’d also like to get one stage further. I think I’d more happy with that than ending his winning streak.”
Troicki advanced when German Philipp Kohlschreiber withdrew because of a back injury. The Serbian has a 15-3 record in Sydney and has won 10 consecutive main-draw matches in a row.
DOUBLES: Top seeds and defending champions Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares reached the semi-finals with ease, dismissing Germans Florian Mayer and Philipp Petzschner 6-3, 6-4 in 56 minutes. Later in the day, Dutchmen Wesley Koolhof and Matwe Middelkoop saved two match points from a 7/9 deficit in the Match tie-break to defeat fourth seeds and 2015 finalists Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau 7-6(4), 2-6, 11-9 in one hour and 37 minutes.
Nottingham’s Joshua Ward-Hibbert discusses his switch of sports as he swaps a tennis court for a basketball court.
He had one of the biggest ever serves in junior tennis and even won a Grand Slam title, but Joshua Ward-Hibbert now wants to be a star on an entirely different court.
Less than five years after winning the Australian Open boys doubles alongside fellow Brit Liam Broady, the 22-year-old is suiting up for the Leicester Riders in the British Basketball League.
“When things come up, you run with it and try to make the best of it,” Ward-Hibbert, who reached number 10 in the junior world rankings, told BBC Sport.
“This is a big opportunity for me and I’ve got a lot of aspirations – I definitely want to play a lot more and in the coming years be a star and big name for the club.
“I will put all the work I can into being the best I can be and see how far I can get with it.”
Injuries, including a shoulder complaint, coupled with waning motivation and planning for life after professional tennis ultimately led Ward-Hibbert back to the hardwood and a second unlikely shot at professional sport.
As a teenager, the Nottinghamshire-born athlete was lauded as one of the nation’s finest tennis and basketball prospects.
He represented his country in both sports, was named England’s best Under-16 player in 2010 and a year later, aged 17, clocked the fastest serve ever recorded at Junior Wimbledon with a 133mph effort.
So when he enrolled at Loughborough University, studying sports science and management in 2016, he was easily enticed to lace up his basketball shoes again to join his childhood club, Derby Trailblazers, in the second-tier National Basketball League.
It proved to be a career-changing decision, leading to him to a deal with the Riders – a club that has won six pieces of silverware, including two league titles, in the past four seasons.
“It was a crazy process and happened really quickly,” Ward-Hibbert said.
“I had a tough time with injuries and with it being such a tough sport, motivation kind of came into play. It was tough to take mentally and physically and was frustrating – especially when it was my go-to, my money maker.
“I decided to take some time out to further my education. I was back home so started playing again at Derby, it was good to be around familiar faces. From there it spiralled and here I am.”
While tennis took priority, basketball has always remained a theme in his life – with his other brother pursuing the sport with Minot State University in the United States.
On tour, Ward-Hibbert would likely be found shooting hoops if there was a basketball court nearby. And if Australia’s Nick Kyrgios was around, going head-to-head with the now world number 15 was common place.
“Everyone would want to play him – Josh was known in the tennis world for his basketball ability,” said Daniel Kiernan, owner of the SotoTennis Academy and Ward-Hibbert’s long-time mentor and coach.
“I saw him plenty of times on the basketball court, that is for sure, and he always looked so comfortable.
“There was definitely a little more confidence about him when he was on a basketball court. You would see it in him when he played doubles tennis as well – it is not an arrogance, but a nice balance of self-assurance and confidence that wasn’t always there on the singles court.”
Find out how to get into basketball with our special guide.
Standing 196cm tall and weighing 96kg, Ward-Hibbert turned heads as a fine physical specimen in tennis. Even from an early age, he stood out.
“Just looking at him, seeing him play grabbed your attention,” said Paul Hutchins, the former Davis Cup captain who also previously worked as head of men’s tennis at the Lawn Tennis Association.
“It is a loss to tennis because he is a young man that had promise. He must be one of the best athletes in British tennis – his size, speed and shape.
“Basketball is lucky to have him.”
On the way to breaking into the top 10 as a junior player, Ward-Hibbert graced the courts of each of the Grand Slams in 2012 – finishing at the junior US Open at Flushing Meadows.
“When you are at the Slams, people are asking for your autograph, they probably don’t know who you are, but it makes you feel important,” he said. “I liked that.”
At the same time, he was trying to establish himself as a professional – playing on the third-tier Futures Tour and flying 808 places up the world rankings in 11 months to reach a career-best 305 in November 2013.
But even though making the transition to promising professional was a demanding one – chasing ranking points in a globetrotting expedition from Casablanca to Ho Chi Minh City – Ward-Hibbert was very much living the dream.
“Growing up, I always had those aspirations to be a professional,” he said. “At 19 I took that route.
“I’d love to have made a profession of it, been a top-100 player, it would have been amazing, I would have loved it.
“I gave it a lot of effort and a lot of time and I don’t have any hard feeling about the sport. It is brutal. It is not like I fell out of love with the sport, I still love playing and will play when I can.”
Even after turning his attention to basketball and studies, he made the most of his first opportunity to get back on the tennis court – reaching the semi-finals of a Futures tournament at Loughborough.
“I will still be about,” he said. “You will see me, if there is a tournament locally and I have some time on my hands, I will be flying to it to get a couple of serves down.”
While Kiernan is convinced Ward-Hibbert is capable of having a playing or coaching career in tennis in the future, the sporting switch has filled him with “an overriding sense of pride”.
Kiernan, who has run a tennis academy in Sotogrande in Spain since 2010, said: “It is fantastic that he has two sports where he is so accomplished and passionate about.
“It is about him being happy and finding something that he can really throw himself into.”
Ward-Hibbert readily admits he has much to learn in basketball and a lot of catching up to do, joining a team that includes former Great Britain captain Drew Sullivan, but he insists his tennis background will hold him in good stead.
“Sure, it is a different sport but the mindset, the professionalism; all sports require similar qualities,” he said.
Riders coach Rob Paternostro, who hopes his newest recruit will help him improve his own tennis game, is excited by Ward-Hibbert’s talent.
“The potential is there and we are always looking for British talent to mould for the future,” Paternostro said.
“He is a little raw at the moment, no question, but we see a lot of his skills are there. We need to polish him up a little.
“You see the athleticism there and to get to where he got in the tennis world, you know he is determined and willing to do what it takes to make it.”
| Watch the BBL and WBBL on BBC Sport |
|---|
| 32 British Basketball League (BBL) and Women’s British Basketball League (WBBL) games live on the BBC Sport website, app and connected TVs this season. |