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Australian Open Capsules: Roddick down and out Down Under at Australian Open
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — A look at Thursday's fourth day of the Australian Open tennis championships:
WEATHER: Mostly sunny, high of 75 degrees.
ATTENDANCE: Day session: 47,471, Night: 21,053. TOTAL: 68,524.
WINNERS: Men: No. 1 Novak Djokovic, No. 4 Andy Murray, No. 5 David Ferrer, No. 6 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, No. 9 Janko Tipsarevic, No. 14 Gael Monfils, No. 17 Richard Gasquet, No. 23 Milos Raonic, No. 24 Kei Nishikori, No. 27 Juan Ignacio Chela.
Women: No. 2 Petra Kvitova, No. 4 Maria Sharapova, No. 7 Vera Zvonareva, No. 9 Marion Bartoli, No. 12 Serena Williams, No. 14 Sabine Lisicki, No. 18 Svetlana Kuznetsova, No. 21 Ana Ivanovic, No. 27 Maria Kirilenko, No. 30 Angelique Kerber.
LOSERS: Men: No. 12 Gilles Simon, No. 15 Andy Roddick, No. 19 Viktor Troicki, No. 26 Marcel Granollers, No. 32 Alex Bogomolov Jr.
Women: No. 15 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, No. 17 Dominika Cibulkova, No. 23 Roberta Vinci, No. 25 Kaia Kanepi, No. 29 Nadia Petrova.
STAT OF THE DAY: 500 — the number of career match wins by Serena Williams after her 2nd-round victory.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: "It's a miserable, terrible thing being out there compromised like that," Roddick on the right hamstring injury that forced him to pull out of his match against Lleyton Hewitt.
ON COURT FRIDAY: No. 2 Rafael Nadal, No. 3 Roger Federer, defending women's champion and No. 11-seeded Kim Clijsters, No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki, No. 5 and French Open champion Li Na.
FRIDAY FORECAST: Party cloudy, high of 79 degrees.
Results
Thursday
At Melbourne Park
Melbourne, Australia
Purse: $26.83 million (Grand Slam)
Surface: Hard-Outdoor
Singles
Men
Second Round
Juan Ignacio Chela (27), Argentina, def. Pablo Andujar, Spain, 6-4, 6-4, 6-3.
Milos Raonic (23), Canada, def. Philipp Petzschner, Germany, 6-4, 5-7, 6-2, 7-5.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (6), France, def. Ricardo Mello, Brazil, 7-5, 6-4, 6-4.
Michael Llodra, France, def. Alex Bogomolov Jr. (32), Russia, 6-1, 6-3, 4-6, 5-7, 6-4.
Novak Djokovic (1), Serbia, def. Santiago Giraldo, Colombia, 6-3, 6-2, 6-1.
Janko Tipsarevic (9), Serbia, def. James Duckworth, Australia, 3-6, 6-2, 7-6 (5), 6-4.
Frederico Gil, Portugal, def. Marcel Granollers (26), Spain, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.
Nicolas Mahut, France, def. Tatsuma Ito, Japan, 1-6, 7-6 (6), 6-2, 6-2.
David Ferrer (5), Spain, def. Ryan Sweeting, United States, 6-7 (4), 6-2, 3-6, 6-2, 6-3.
Andy Murray (4), Britain, def. Edouard Roger-Vasselin, France, 6-1, 6-4, 6-4.
Richard Gasquet (17), France, def. Andrey Golubev, Kazakhstan, 6-4, 6-2, 3-0, retired.
Kei Nishikori (24), Japan, def. Matthew Ebden, Australia, 3-6, 1-6, 6-4, 6-1, 6-1.
Mikhail Kukushkin, Kazakhstan, def. Viktor Troicki (19), Serbia, 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3.
Gael Monfils (14), France, def. Thomaz Bellucci, Brazil, 2-6, 6-0, 6-4, 6-2.
Lleyton Hewitt, Australia, def. Andy Roddick (15), United States, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, retired.
Julien Benneteau, France, def. Gilles Simon (12), France, 7-5, 7-6 (8), 1-6, 3-6, 6-2.
Women
Second Round
Maria Sharapova (4), Russia, def. Jamie Hampton, United States, 6-0, 6-1.
Ana Ivanovic (21), Serbia, def. Michaella Krajicek, Netherlands, 6-2, 6-3.
Vera Zvonareva (7), Russia, def. Lucie Hradecka, Czech Republic, 6-1, 7-6 (3).
Sara Errani, Italy, def. Nadia Petrova (29), Russia, 6-2, 6-2.
Angelique Kerber (30), Germany, def. Stephanie Dubois, Canada, 7-5, 6-1.
Ekaterina Makarova, Russia, def. Kaia Kanepi (25), Estonia, 6-2, 7-5.
Serena Williams (12), United States, def. Barbora Zahlavova Strycova, Czech Republic, 6-0, 6-4.
Zheng Jie, China, def. Roberta Vinci (23), Italy, 6-4, 6-2.
Vania King, United States, def. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (15), Russia, 5-7, 6-3, 6-4.
Sorana Cirstea, Romania, def. Urszula Radwanska, Poland, 1-6, 6-2, 6-3.
Petra Kvitova (2), Czech Republic, def. Carla Suarez Navarro, Spain, 6-2, 2-6, 6-4.
Greta Arn, Hungary, def. Dominika Cibulkova (17), Slovakia, 6-2, 3-6, 10-8.
Sabine Lisicki (14), Germany, def. Shahar Peer, Israel, 6-1, 6-2.
Maria Kirilenko (27), Russia, def. Aleksandra Wozniak, Canada, 6-4, 1-6, 6-2.
Marion Bartoli (9), France, def. Jelena Dokic, Australia, 6-3, 6-2.
Svetlana Kuznetsova (18), Russia, def. Sloane Stephens, United States, 7-6 (6), 7-5.
Doubles
Men
First Round
Daniele Bracciali and Potito Starace, Italy, def. Xavier Malisse, Belgium, and Ken Skupski, Britain, 7-6 (4), 6-3.
Robert Lindstedt, Sweden, and Horia Tecau (7), Romania, def. Andreas Siljestrom, Sweden, and Igor Zelenay, Slovakia, 6-3, 7-6 (6).
Max Mirnyi, Belarus, and Daniel Nestor (2), Canada, def. Benjamin Mitchell and Matt Reid, Australia, 6-2, 6-2.
Mikhail Elgin and Alexander Kudryavtsev, Russia, def. Robin Haase, Netherlands, and Jarkko Nieminen, Finland, 6-2, 7-6 (6).
Colin Ebelthite and Marinko Matosevic, Australia, def. Luke Saville and Andrew Whittington, Australia, 6-0, 6-3.
Julian Knowle, Austria, and Michael Kohlmann, Germany, def. Paul Hanley, Australia, and Jamie Murray (16), Britain, 7-6 (2), 4-6, 7-6 (5).
Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah, Colombia, def. Sergiy Stakhovsky, Ukraine, and Mikhail Youzhny, Russia, 6-4, 7-5.
Michal Mertinak, Slovakia, and Andre Sa, Brazil, def. Alexandr Dolgopolov and Denys Molchanov, Ukraine, 6-2, 6-2.
Victor Hanescu, Romania, and Olivier Rochus, Belgium, def. Oliver Marach and Alexander Peya (9), Austria, 7-6 (4), 4-6, 7-6 (5).
Carsten Ball, Australia, and Treat Conrad Huey, Philippines, def. Ivo Karlovic, Croatia, and Frank Moser, Germany, 6-3, 6-4.
Carlos Berlocq and Leonardo Mayer, Argentina, def. James Cerretani, United States, and Dick Norman, Belgium, 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (6).
Eric Butorac, United States, and Bruno Soares (10), Brazil, def. Frederico Gil, Portugal, and Daniel Gimeno-Traver, Spain, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (9).
Bob and Mike Bryan (1), United States, def. Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram, Israel, 7-6 (6), 6-4.
Michael Llodra, France, and Nenad Zimonjic (3), Serbia, def. Jordan Kerr, Australia, and Donald Young, United States, 7-6 (6), 6-3.
Jurgen Melzer, Austria, and Philipp Petzschner (5), Germany, def. Nicolas Almagro and Pere Riba, Spain, 6-4, 6-4.
Flavio Cipolla, Italy, and Denis Istomin, Uzbekistan, def. James Duckworth and Adam Feeney, Australia, 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 (5).
Pablo Andujar and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, Spain, def. Tobias Kamke, Germany, and Frederik Nielsen, Denmark, 6-3, 2-6, 6-3.
Women
First Round
Jarmila Gajdosova, Australia, and Bethanie Mattek-Sands (12), United States, def. Nina Bratchikova, Russia, and Darija Jurak, Croatia, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.
Gisela Dulko, Argentina, and Flavia Pennetta (4), Italy, def. Irina Falconi, United States, and Rebecca Marino, Canada, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.
Bojana Bobusic and Sacha Jones, Australia, def. Liga Dekmeijere, Latvia, and Maria Kondratieva, Russia, 6-4, 6-1.
Tamira Paszek, Austria, and Jasmin Woehr, Germany, def. Peng Shuai, China, and Francesca Schiavone, Italy, 3-6, 5-2, retired.
Daniela Hantuchova, Slovakia, and Agnieszka Radwanska (8), Poland, def. Anna Tatishvili, Georgia, and Anastasiya Yakimova, Belarus, 6-1, 6-0.
Eva Birnerova, Czech Republic, and Alberta Brianti, Italy, def. Stephanie Bengson and Tyra Calderwood, Australia, 6-4, 6-4.
Julia Goerges, Germany, and Kaia Kanepi, Estonia, def. Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears (15), United States, 6-1, 4-6, 6-3.
Sania Mirza, India, and Elena Vesnina (6), Russia, def. Eleni Daniilidou, Greece, and Alexandra Panova, Russia, 6-0, 6-2.
Petra Cetkovska, Czech Republic, and Stephanie Foretz Gacon, France, def. Monique Adamczak and Olivia Rogowska, Australia, 6-4, 6-3.
Hsieh Su-wei, Taiwan, and Galina Voskoboeva (14), Kazakhstan, def. Kimiko Date-Krumm, Japan, and Zhang Shuai, China, 6-2, 6-1.
Irina-Camelia Begu and Monica Niculescu, Romania, def. Simona Halep, Romania, and Arantxa Rus, Netherlands, 6-4, 6-4.
Kveta Peschke, Czech Republic, and Katarina Srebotnik (1), Slovenia, def. Angelique Kerber, Germany, and Christina McHale, United States, 2-6, 6-2, 6-2.
Polona Hercog, Slovenia, and Zheng Jie, China, def. Mathilde Johansson and Pauline Parmentier, France, 6-2, 6-2.
Nuria Llagostera Vives and Arantxa Parra Santonja (13), Spain, def. Casey Dellacqua, Australia, and Chanelle Scheepers, South Africa, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4.
Petra Martic, Croatia, and Kristina Mladenovic, France, def. Mona Barthel, Germany, and Anne Keothavong, Britain, 6-4, 6-7 (3), 7-5.
Show Court Schedules
Friday
At Melbourne Park
Melbourne, Australia
Play begins at 7 p.m. EST Wednesday
Rod Laver Arena
Lukas Lacko, Slovakia, vs. Rafael Nadal (2), Spain
Ivo Karlovic, Croatia, vs. Roger Federer (3), Switzerland
Night Session (3 a.m. EST Thursday)
Alexandr Dolgopolov (13), Ukraine, vs. Bernard Tomic, Australia
Anabel Medina Garrigues (26), Spain, vs. Li Na (5), China
Hisense Arena
Victoria Azarenka (3), Belarus, vs. Mona Barthel, Germany
Caroline Wozniacki (1), Denmark, vs. Monica Niculescu (31), Romania
John Isner (16), United States, vs. Feliciano Lopez (18), Spain
Night Session (3 a.m. EST Thursday)
Kim Clijsters (11), Belgium, vs. Daniela Hantuchova (20), Slovakia
Yen-hsun Lu, Taiwan, vs. Juan Martin del Potro (11), Argentina
Margaret Court Arena
Doubles TBA
Galina Voskoboeva, Kazakhstan, vs. Agnieszka Radwanska (8), Poland
Tomas Berdych (7), Czech Republic, vs. Kevin Anderson (30), South Africa
Christina McHale, United States, vs. Jelena Jankovic (13), Serbia
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Andy Roddick lunged for a shot by Lleyton Hewitt and felt a sharp pain in his right leg. He stayed down on his hands and one knee for a few seconds, wondering if his Australian Open was finished.
He played the next two points, falling behind 3-0 in the second set, before taking a medical timeout to treat his hamstring.
Still, Roddick played on. Clearly restricted, he didn't bother to chase down some shots and walked slowly between points with his head down.
Finally, after 16 more games, Roddick called it quits. He retired with Hewitt leading the second-round match 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.
"It's a miserable, terrible thing being out there compromised like that," Roddick said.
The 29-year-old American knew he wouldn't be able to fool an opponent he was playing for the 14th time, one of the few players on the tour older than he is, somebody who was ranked No. 1 before he was and someone with one more Grand Slam title.
"He's a tough guy to play," said Roddick, now 7-7 against Hewitt for his career. "You can try to ham and egg it against a lot of guys. But he's really intelligent. He knew what was going on."
Roddick's limitations were obvious in the second and third sets. He threw his racket into the wall and argued with the chair umpire over a line call. He bristled when a woman shouted, "Come on Lleyton," just as Roddick was about to serve.
"It's frustrating. It's discouraging," he said, referring to the hamstring tendon injury. "You know, your sensible mind says to have a sense of perspective. You still have it pretty good. The competitor in you feels terrible and wants to break stuff."
Roddick had his chances. He converted the only break-point chance in the first set and even had opportunities after he injured his leg. But when he knew he needed to win two more sets to advance, he called the trainer, then walked over to shake Hewitt's hand.
"I was hitting the ball as well as I could from a compromised position and still felt like I was just hanging on," he said. "I don't know that it would have been smart to do that for two more sets. And if somehow you pull a rabbit out of the hat, I don't think you play in two days. If I'm looking at timelines, I think there's three weeks or so before I have to play again. I like those timelines a lot more than two days."
Hewitt, who turns 31 next month, goes to the third round against Milos Raonic, the big-serving, 21-year-old Canadian. If Hewitt eliminates an opponent who has dropped only two service games this year, he could face defending champion Novak Djokovic in the fourth round. Djokovic, who won three of the four major titles last year, kept getting better in his 6-3, 6-2, 6-1 win over Santiago Giraldo.
Fourth-seeded Andy Murray, who lost to Djokovic in last year's Australian final, ousted Edouard Roger-Vasselin of France 6-1, 6-4, 6-4. No. 5 David Ferrer beat American Ryan Sweeting 6-7 (4), 6-2, 3-6, 6-2, 6-3, and No. 6 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga downed Ricardo Mello of Brazil 7-5, 6-4, 6-4.
No. 2 Rafael Nadal and No. 3 Roger Federer, with 26 Grand Slam titles between them, play in back-to-back matches on Rod Laver Arena on Friday, with defending women's champion Kim Clijsters to play Daniela Hantuchova in a night match on Hisense Arena.
Five-time Australian Open champion winner Serena Williams notched her 500th career singles victory Thursday when she beat Barbora Zahlavova Strycova 6-0, 6-4 in the second round.
"Five hundred is a lot of matches to play, let alone to win," she said, adding that the left ankle she badly sprained two weeks ago wasn't an issue. "It's totally fine. It was my good ankle, so I'm good."
Williams won the Australian Open in 2009 and 2010, but didn't defend her title in 2011 because she was injured.
No. 2 Petra Kvitova moved into the third round with a 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 win over Carla Suarez Navarro. Maria Sharapova, one of the three former champions in the women's draw, routed U.S. qualifier Jamie Hampton 6-0, 6-1. No. 7 Vera Zvonareva, a two-time semifinalist at Melbourne Park, No. 9 Marion Bartoli and No. 21 Ana Ivanovic all advanced.
For Roddick, this was his earliest Australian Open exit since he first entered in 2002. By not defending points he won at the start of last season, he'll fall in the rankings. He already dropped to No. 14 last year, losing his spot as the top American, after an injury-interrupted season.
For a player who hasn't been able to add another Grand Slam singles title since his only major victory at the 2003 U.S. Open, Roddick acknowledges the physical and mentally toll.
He had treatment every day in the offseason to get prepared for 2012. He entered mixed doubles at the Australian Open with Williams with the idea of competing at the London Olympics. Mixed doubles is off for now, as he concentrates on returning at San Jose, Calif., next month.
Hewitt is still recovering from left foot surgery last year, which restricted him to 20 tour matches and resulted in his ranking plummeting to No. 187.
He won the U.S. Open in 2001 and Wimbledon in 2002, but hasn't been back to a Grand Slam final since losing back-to-back in the 2004 U.S. Open and 2005 Australian Open. But he keeps believing he can win. And he paid tribute to Roddick for having the same attitude.
"He's similar to me," he said. "He plays with his heart on his sleeve, has that never-say-die attitude as well. It's never easy to play injured or to pull out of a match. It's not a good feeling."
Baghdatis smashes four rackets in one-minute meltdown
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Serena Williams was impressed. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was surprised. Novak Djokovic just couldn't wait to join the hundreds of thousands of people to have viewed online footage of Marcos Baghdatis spectacular bout of racket rage.
Baghdatis lost a last-night match Wednesday at the Australian Open, but he was still the talk of Melbourne Park a day later.
Down two sets and a break, Baghdatis sat in his chair at the changeover and whacked his racket on the court seven times until it was almost unrecognizable. That wasn't so unusual.
But after Baghdatis calmly gave the mangled racket to a ballboy, he plucked a new one out of his bag and cracked that as well. The next two, he didn't even bother taking out of the plastic wrapping before smashing them into the court.
In all, the fiery Cypriot broke four rackets during a meltdown that lasted less than a minute and earned him a $1,250 fine — or just over $300 per racket.
"I've never done that. That's impressive. Wow," Williams said Thursday. "I actually used to break a lot of rackets on the court. I sometimes break them in practice, just not in a match anymore."
His frustration released, Baghdatis recovered to win the third set but lost the match 7-6 (3), 6-4, 5-7, 6-1 to Stanislas Wawrinka.
Nearly 24 hours later, YouTube footage of the racket smashing episode had been viewed more than 350,000 times — and it was still rising.
"I hope he gets a share of the YouTube clips," said former Aussie Open champion Jim Courier, who working as an analyst during the tournament for Australian television. "It was such a raw moment."
Djokovic hadn't yet had a chance to see the footage before his match, but the mention of racket smashing had him reminiscing about the game's most famous exponents.
"I think (Goran) Ivanisevic and (Marat) Safin are right up there," the No. 1-ranked Serb said. "Loved watching them."
Baghdatis, who could have been fined up to $2000 for his outburst, joined a list of players who have also been penalized for breaking their rackets at the tournament, including John Isner, Alexandr Dolgopolov and Denis Istomin.
Donald Young, Juan Carlos Ferrero and Gilles Simon have been given $1,500 fines for audible obscenities.
Tsonga, like most players who were asked about it on Thursday, sympathized with Baghdatis' need to vent his frustrations — but the Frenchman was still taken aback by the scale of the tantrum.
"Four, it's a lot," said Tsonga, a former Australian Open finalist. "My father told me all the time, 'If you break the racket, I break you.'"
Baghdatis wasn't alone in losing his cool on Wednesday.
After losing the fourth set of his marathon match against Isner, David Nalbandian threw his racket into a wall at Margaret Court Arena and was lucky it didn't rebound and hit a nearby linesperson.
A ballboy picked up the racket and gave it back, only for the unhappy Argentine to fling it into the crowd.
That wasn't the end of it, either. Nalbandian also angrily smashed his racket after netting a volley on match point. At the press conference, criticized chair umpire Kader Nouni, who refused his request for a video challenge at break point at 8-8 in the fifth set because he said Nalbandian waited too long to ask.
"I mean, can you be that stupid to do that in that moment?" Nalbandian said.
Nalbandian and Baghdatis still have some way to go before they can match Safin and Ivanisevic for racket-smashing prowess.
Ivanisevic had to default from a tournament in England in 2000 when he mangled three rackets — and then realized he had none left.
Safin, the 2005 Australian Open champion, once estimated he had destroyed about 700 rackets in his 12-year career. He recently won a seat in Russia's lower house of Parliament.
-- Caroline Cheese
Sharapova makes short work of second-round match
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Wearing a dress being marketed as Statement Slam, Maria Sharapova delivered a message of intent.
The 24-year-old Russian beat American qualifier Jamie Hampton 6-0, 6-1 Thursday to reach the third round. She won her first-round match by the same scoreline.
"For the first couple rounds, not having played competitively for a while, I feel pretty good," she said.
Sharapova's form was unknown coming into the tournament. She injured her left ankle in September and pulled out of a tuneup tournament at Brisbane as a precaution.
She hasn't been past the fourth round at the Australian Open since winning the title in 2008 — the last of her three Grand Slam titles. Sharapova missed out on defending her crown at Melbourne in 2009 because of shoulder surgery that sidelined her for nine months and disrupted her play for much longer.
Fit again, Sharapova is intent on adding to her major haul — starting in Melbourne, where she could face Serena Williams in the quarterfinals and Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova in the last four.
"I've been on tour for many years," she said. "I've played many matches, many tournaments. I've never really been a player that just goes to a tournament to add a tournament on her agenda or, you know, go out there just to play.
"My goal is to be ready for the important ones, for the big ones. That's what matters at this stage in my career."
The Olympics in London also loom large for Sharapova, who missed the 2008 Games — again because of injury.
"This year is a big year for me because I'll be playing in the Olympics, which has been a dream of mine since I was a young girl," she said. "Growing up in Russia, tennis wasn't a big sport back then. It was all about being an Olympian, especially the winter sports."
Wearing a distinctive white dress with what her sponsor describes as an electric green trim, Sharapova was far too strong for Hampton, who was playing in the second round of a Grand Slam for the first time.
The 24-year-old Russian hit 23 winners to her opponent's six and was back in the locker room after 64 minutes. Her first-round win over Gisela Dulko took 58.
Sharapova brushed aside the suggestion that the women's tour lacks depth, for anyone looking only at lopsided results in the first two games of the Grand Slam.
"Sometimes we come out and we play three-set matches from the beginning, and then it's a question of, well, you're top 5 in the world, why is someone challenging you to three sets from the beginning?" she said.
"I think it's just an excuse to make another story. My goal is to go into a match and play my game. If I do it well enough and come out winning 6-0, 6-1, then I've done a good job."
-- Caroline Cheese
