Agencies
Hopman Cup
British No 1 Andy Murray conceded he was being troubled by a lingering left shoulder problem after he opened his Hopman Cup account with a straight-sets win over Frenchman Benoit Paire at the Perth Arena on Monday.
The world No 6 had few problems with Paire, himself on the comeback trail after injury, and won their clash 6-2, 7-5 as Great Britain beat defending champions France 2-1 at the mixed teams tournament.
Murray suffered from soreness in the shoulder during and after his emphatic victory over Rafael Nadal in the season-opening Mubadala World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi last week, which he won when Novak Djokovic forfeited the final.
The dual grand slam champion subsequently had a scan which cleared him of any serious problems, however the shoulder again caused him discomfort in the win over Paire.
Just two weeks out from the year’s first grand slam, the Australian Open in Melbourne, where he has been a finalist three times, the 27-year-old conceded the pain was causing him concern.
“It is still quite sore,” he said.
“If it was my right shoulder it would probably be quite hard for me to play, I do not feel it on my groundstrokes as much but I feel it when I am serving.
“Maybe it was playing a match (in Abu Dhabi) after having a break or I just got it in the wrong position and tweaked something a little bit, but I should be fine.”
Murray said he would continue to have treatment on the shoulder.
WTA Auckland
Caroline Wozniacki and Venus Williams cruised through to the second round of the WTA Auckland Classic Tuesday to restore a semblance of order as other seeds crashed around them.
Wozniacki, the tournament top seed, expended minimal energy downing Israeli qualifier Julia Glushko 6-3, 6-2 while Williams dropped only one game dispatching Slovakia’s Jana Cepelova 6-1, 6-0.
But Svetlana Kuznetsova, the fifth seed, became the third ranked player to make an early exit joining first day losers Sara Errani of Italy and Germany’s Mona Barthel, the second and eighth seeds.
Wozniacki made few unforced errors as she cruised past Glushko in 69 minutes with a 75 per cent first serve success rate to set up a second round meeting with American wildcard Taylor Townsend.
Williams was even more impressive blasting 10 aces to dispose of Cepelova in a one-way contest.
The veteran had too much power and pace and declared herself satisfied even though it was not much of a contest.
“Absolutely, because usually when you win a match more easily it means you’re doing everything right,” she said.
Former world No 2 Kuznetsova fell to Czech qualifier Lucie Hradecka in a three-set marathon 6-3, 6-7 (6/8), 4-6.
Polish qualifier Urzula Radwanska also produced an upset with a 6-4, 7-5 win over 2010 French Open winner Francesca Schiavone from Italy.
Radwanksa was 5-0 up in the first set before Schiavone gained a feel for the pace of the game and although she became more formidable in the second set Radwanksa took the match on her second match point.
WTA Shenzhen
Czech world No 4 Petra Kvitova thrashed Serbia’s Bojana Jovanovski 6-1, 6-2 in the second round of the Shenzhen Open on Tuesday.
The 24-year-old double Wimbledon winner and second seed broke Jovanovski twice in the first set.
The Serbian, ranked 56, offered a little more resistance in the second set, earning three break points. But she failed to take any of them and Kvitova wrapped up the match in 1 hour and 2 minutes.
Kvitova hit six aces in her victory, which was even more comprehensive than her trouncing of home wild card Duan Yingying in the first round of the $500,000 (Dh1.8 million) WTA tournament on Monday.
Home player Zheng Saisai took nearly two hours to overcome Slovenia’s Polona Hercog 6-3, 2-6, 6-2.
In the day’s only other singles match, Kazakh No 4 seed Zarina Diyas breezed past Timea Babos of Hungary in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4.
ATP Chennai
At the Chennai Open on Monday night, Croatian rising start Borna Coric crushed Robin Haase of the Netherlands 6-2, 6-2.
The 18-year-old, who beat Rafael Nadal in Basel last year, dispatched the world No 80 and will next take on world No 4 and defending Australian Open champion Stan Wawrinka.
Wawrinka, the top seed in the 32-man field in India, crashed out of the Abu Dhabi tournament last week with consecutive losses to Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal.
Eighth seed Gilles Muller of Luxembourg launched the ATP tournament with a gruelling three-set win over last year’s finalist Edouard Roger-Vasselin of France earlier on Monday.
The big-serving Muller was stretched by the valiant Frenchman before winning 6-7 (11/13), 6-1, 7-6 (7/3) in 2 hours and 23 minutes on a stifling, humid evening in Chennai.
Muller seized the opportunity and played consistent tennis in the final set to advance to the second round of the $450,000 season-opening event.
Muller, ranked 46th in the world, said he was relieved to start the new season with a win.
“My game is not consistent and it showed again today,” he said. “I should learn to be more aggressive. I should have won the first set but I am happy I did not give in.”
Indian No 1 Somdev Devvarman, the world No 136, is in action on Tuesday against Taiwanese world No 38 Yen-hsun Lu.
World No 36 Guillermo Garcia-Lopez also plays Evgeny Donskoy and Pablo Carreno-Busta (No 49) faces off with Alejandro Gonzalez.
ATP Doha
Richard Gasquet made a convincing start to his bid to regain a place in the world’s top 10 with a new year first round victory in the Qatar Open on Monday.
The Switzerland-based former world No 7 made some enterprising approaches to the net and hit plenty of characteristically flowing ground strokes during a 6-3, 7-5 win over Pablo Andujar, a top 50 Spaniard.
Though it was a match Gasquet expected to win, the quality of his game sometimes made it hard to believe he has dropped to 27 in the rankings after a disappointing 2014.
Two years ago after winning the title in Doha he went on to return to the world’s top 10 for the first time in five years. He would love to do something similar this time.
“I’m really hoping I can play better this year,” he stressed. “The most important for me is to be fit, because I had so many injuries last year and it’s impossible to do a great season when you are so injured.
“So it’s most important for me to be fit this year and I think it’s okay at the moment. Really, I need to work on my physical condition with the physio, with everything, but I think I’m still young.”
The two ailing tournament favourites, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, both made winning starts to 2015 – but in doubles.
Djokovic, the world No 1, partnered his Serbian compatriot Filip Krajinovic to a 6-1, 6-4 win over Jabor Ali Mutawa of Qatar and Malek Jaziri of Tunisia, and proclaimed himself better after the fever which caused his withdrawal from the final of the Abu Dhabi event two days previously.
Nadal, world No 2, partnered Juan Monaco of Argentina to a 6-3, 6-3 win over Simone Bolelli and Leonardo Mayer, another Argentine.
The Spaniard’s return to his former excellence may take longer than Djokovic’s after an appendectomy and a badly truncated second half of 2014.
On Tuesday Nadal will begin singles play against Belgian Michael Berrer and Djokovic will play his first round match against compatriot Dusan Lajovic.
Other big names in first round action in Doha on Tuesday include Tomas Berdych (v Denis Istomin) and David Ferrer (v Thiemo De Bakker).
ATP Brisbane
First-round play continued on Tuesday at the Brisbane International, with world No 16 Kevin Anderson and Aussie hopeful Marinko Matosevic among those suffering an early exit.
South African Anderson was beaten by Polish veteran Lukasz Kubot 6-7 (3/7), 4-6, while Matosevic fell to American Steve Johnson after taking the opening set 6-2, 6-7 (0/7), 5-7.
Johnson’s reward will be a meeting with US Open finalist Kei Nishikori in the second round, while Kubot is set for a match with anther Australian – either Sam Groth or Lleyton Hewitt, playing later on Tuesday.
Another local, wild card John Millman, beat American qualifier Rhyne Williams and will now get the chance to take on Roger Federer in the second round.
Kazakh Mikhail Kukushkin also won, beating qualifier Marius Copil to arrange a second round meeting with world No 8 Milos Raonic.
Other winners included Jarkko Nieminen, Martin Klizan and Alexandr Dolgopolov.
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