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'Lucky' Robson on Vegas shooting, retirement thoughts and 2018 goals

  • Posted: Jan 17, 2018
2018 Australian Open
Dates: 15-28 January Venue: Melbourne Park
Coverage: Watch highlights on BBC Two, the BBC Sport website and app. Live commentary on the best matches on BBC Radio 5 live, 5 live sports extra and online.

Laura Robson and Coco Vandeweghe were knocked out of the Australian Open women’s doubles in the first round by Hao-Ching Chan and Katarina Srebotnik.

Briton Robson and American Vandeweghe lost 7-6 (7-3) 6-4 to the Taiwanese-Slovenian pair.

British pair Naomi Broady and Anna Smith also lost – 6-2 6-1 to Czechs Lucie Safarova and Barbora Strycova.

Robson, at 227 in the world, was not ranked high enough to enter qualifying for the singles at Melbourne Park.

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  • Kyrgios comes through incident-packed match
  • Live scores, schedule and results

Robson on Vegas shooting, retirement thoughts and 2018 goal

Following her defeat, Robson spoke for the first time about being at a music festival in Las Vegas in October, when a mass shooting left 58 people dead.

“It was a crazy, crazy thing to happen and I got really, really lucky,” said Robson, who initially did not realise what was happening. “My friends got really, really lucky. I don’t really like to think about it.

“I thought it was something on the stage. My friend, one of the girls I was with, she is from North Carolina so she was the first one to be like, ‘hang on here, that is definitely bullets’.”

On the tennis court, the 23-year-old has reunited with Dutch coach Martijn Bok, who guided her to the Wimbledon junior title in 2008.

Robson was ranked in the world’s top 30 as a teenager, but fell down the rankings because of long-term wrist problems that required surgery.

Asked if retirement entered her mind while she struggled to improve her ranking last year, she told BBC Sport: “When you’re a couple of weeks into a trip by yourself in China, it definitely does enter your thoughts.

“When I started to feel that way I just had to change my mindset and change the people I had around me a little bit. I got my old coach back and we had some great weeks at the end of the year, training really hard, and he’s here with me now and I feel a lot better.”

Robson, who turns 24 on Sunday, added: “I actually feel good. I feel very happy on court for the first time in a long time.

“My goal for the end of the year is to be back in the top 100 but really, for me, I want to feel the best possible version of myself again on court.

“That’s something that’s just not been there the last few years.”

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Wozniacki saves match points before beating Fett

  • Posted: Jan 17, 2018
2018 Australian Open
Dates: 15-28 January Venue: Melbourne Park
Coverage: Watch highlights on BBC Two, the BBC Sport website and app. Live commentary on the best matches on BBC Radio 5 live, 5 live sports extra and online.

Second seed Caroline Wozniacki fought back from two match points down to beat world number 119 Jana Fett in the Australian Open second round.

The Dane, 27, won 3-6 6-2 7-5 in two hours and 31 minutes, having been 5-1 down in the final set.

After saving the match points on Fett’s serve, Wozniacki won six successive games to seal a place in the last 32.

“I am relieved to be through. I fought for every point and didn’t give up, and it was rewarded,” she told Eurosport.

“I am extremely happy to be through and to have another opportunity to be out here – it was definitely a crazy match today. It was experience that did it.”

  • Kostyuk, 15, becomes youngest player into third round at Slam since 1997
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  • Live scores, schedule and results

Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic, who beat 2017 finalist Venus Williams in round one, was knocked out by Thai qualifier Luksika Kumkhum.

The 24-year-old world number 125 won 6-1 6-3 in one and hour 18 minutes to reach the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time.

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Carreno Busta Moves On In Melbourne

  • Posted: Jan 17, 2018

Carreno Busta Moves On In Melbourne

Spaniard to play winner between No. 23 Muller and Jaziri

Pablo Carreno Busta became the first player to advance to the third round at the 2018 Australian Open when Tata Open Maharashtra champion Gilles Simon retired while trailing 2-6, 0-3.

Carreno Busta reaches his fifth consecutive Grand Slam third round, after reaching the quarter-finals and semi-finals at Roland Garros and the US Open, respectively last year. Simon led 2-1 in the first set and held a total of four break points in Carreno Busta’s first two service games, but the No. 10 seed won the next eight games before Simon retired.

The pair entered their second-round encounter with an even 2-2 FedEx ATP Head2Head series record, with Simon winning their only previous match on hard court in straight sets (2016 Shanghai). The Frenchman entered the season’s first major with momentum after earning his first ATP World Tour title since the 2015 Open 13 Marseille (d. Monfils). In Pune, Simon beat three Top 20 players in the ATP Rankings, including World No. 6 Marin Cilic in the semi-finals.

Carreno Busta will play No. 23 seed Gilles Muller, who survived a tremendous comeback by Malek Jaziri 7-5, 6-4, 6-7(5), 3-6, 6-2 to win two matches in a row for the first time since July 2017 (Atlanta).

For a moment, it appeared that Jaziri would come back from two sets down for the second match in a row after defeating Salvatore Caruso in that fashion on Monday. After failing to break Muller in the first three sets of the match, the Tunisian snuck out the third-set tie-break before breaking on his fourth opportunity in his opponent’s first service game of the fourth set — his eighth chance overall. And with his forehand catching fire from the baseline, Jaziri stormed ahead with the momentum, losing just two more points on serve in the rest of the set to force a decider.

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Muller, who last season won his first ATP World Tour title immediately before the Australian Open at the Sydney International, entered the first Slam of the year in 2018 having gone 4-7 in his past 11 matches. He also had never lost a set in two previous FedExATP Head2Head meetings against Jaziri. Yet suddenly, after coming within a game — twice — of advancing to the third round in straight sets, Muller was in deep trouble, falling behind a break at 0-1 in the fifth set.

But the 34-year-old, competing for the 12th time in the Australian Open main draw, broke Jaziri twice in a row to right the ship. While the World No. 100 earned five break points trailing 1-3, Muller gave him little opportunity to take advantage, using his pinpoint left-handed serve to end points or allow him to control them with his forehand. After four hours, two minutes and on Muller’s fourth match point, Jaziri shuttled a backhand down the line wide to end the back-and-forth battle.

While Muller defeated Carreno Busta at the 2015 Australian Open, the Spaniard beat Luxembourg’s star player in last season’s Millennium Estoril Open final to win one of his three ATP World Tour titles. He also leads his FedEx ATP Head2Head series 2-1 against the crafty left-hander.

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Nadal, Federer Up For Global Sports Honours

  • Posted: Jan 16, 2018

Nadal, Federer Up For Global Sports Honours

Laureus World Sports Awards to be held in Monaco on 27 February

The top two players in the ATP Rankings, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, have been nominated for Laureus World Sports Awards following a vote by the world’s sports media. The superstars will compete against silver medal-winning athlete Mo Farah, cyclist Chris Froome and Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton for the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year, which will be announced on 27 February in Monaco.

Nadal rose from year-end No. 9 in 2016 to finish 2017 atop the ATP Rankings, doing so for the fourth time in his career (2008, 2010, 2013). The Spaniard became the oldest player to finish year-end No. 1 (since 1973) at 31, and was also the first to end the year in the top spot in non-consecutive years on four occasions.

Federer has also been nominated for the Laureus World Comeback of the Year category for winning two Grand Slams as well as three ATP World Tour Masters 1000 trophies after missing six months in 2016 due to a knee injury. The Swiss is a four-time Laureus Award winner, and could add to his collection with a record fifth and sixth honour.

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'I did everything in my power' but Watson goes out in first round

  • Posted: Jan 16, 2018
2018 Australian Open
Dates: 15-28 January Venue: Melbourne Park
Coverage: Watch highlights on BBC Two, the BBC Sport website and app. Live commentary on the best matches on BBC Radio 5 live, 5 live sports extra and online.

Heather Watson’s Australian Open campaign ended with a first-round defeat by world number 54 Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan.

The Briton, 25, had a set point to level the match in a tie-break but went down 7-5 7-6 (8-6).

Watson, ranked 68th, has now lost her opening match on five of her seven appearances in Melbourne.

It means Johanna Konta and Kyle Edmund are the only British players left in the singles draws after round one.

Earlier on Tuesday, ninth seed Konta beat American Madison Brengle 6-3 6-1 to progress.

  • British number one Konta progresses to second round
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  • Live scores, schedule and results
  • BBC coverage times

‘I left it all out there’ – Watson

Watson said before the match that she expected a tough battle against a “fiery” opponent, and so it proved.

She had her chances over the course of a gruelling two hours 16 minutes, and was urged on by a large British contingent on court 13.

However, she would end the match with roughly double the amount of errors (51) and winners (35) than her opponent, and loose shots at the wrong time cost her.

Watson told BBC Radio 5 live she was “extremely disappointed”, adding: “I left it all out there.

“I didn’t play my best but I said from start to finish, even if I don’t win a game from here, I’m going to play the way I want to play. The right way.

“Then, in my mind, that’s the best I could have done.

“It’s not always going to go your way, and you’re not always going to play well, but at least I did everything in my power that I was supposed to do and prepared right.”

After recovering an early break to lead 5-4 in the first set, a poor service game at 5-5 ultimately lost her the set.

With tensions rising and both players taking out their frustrations on their racquets, Watson found her best form of the match as she powered 4-1 clear in the second.

However, the steadier Putintseva clawed back the deficit and, after Watson swung a backhand wide on set point in the tie-break, her opponent capitalised to seal the win.

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