Agencies
ATP Doha
Rafael Nadal's ability to make a quick recovery from multiple ailments was thrown into doubt Tuesday as he lost 6-1, 3-6, 4-6 to unheralded veteran Michael Berrer in Qatar.
This first round match was Nadal’s first of the 2015 ATP Tour and he appeared to have had insufficient time to recover from an appendectomy, and far too little match practice over the last two months.
Nevertheless, it was a humiliating outcome for one of the most successful players of all time, who had won the first set at a canter before his game crumbled.
Berrer is a 34-year-old qualifier ranked outside the top 100 who is playing the last season of his career.
Nadal has also been suffering from back and wrist injuries, which reduced his service speed greatly.
And he appeared to cast doubt on his ability to take part, let alone be a contender at the Australian Open, which begins in less than two weeks.
“Little things didn’t quite work out for me today,” he said. “This is the third comeback of my career after injury, so we will see how it goes in a couple of months. I wanted to start well, but it was not the case today.
“I also want to play in the Australian Open which is a tournament I like a lot. I don’t know if that will be the case either, but I am going to work for it. If not I will be playing at Rio and Buenos Aires.
“The season is long. After coming back from injury you can’t see the immediate moment, you have to look further ahead a little bit.
“Now in my mind I have to practise well and try to be ready for Australia, but I know it can happen that I will go there and lose. Perhaps I will win a couple of matches there, I don’t know.”
Berrer had only taken four games in four sets off Nadal in their previous two meetings, but recognised a career-greatest opportunity and in patches responded by raising his standards to new heights. He was also admirably frank in his assessment.
“It’s one of the matches which will stay in my memory for ever, but let’s be honest it was the first match for Rafa after injury,” he said.
“In the first set it felt like the other matches against him,” he added. “Then it became easy to attack because it was the only chance I had.
“It’s also my last season and I had nothing to lose, and I’m enjoying it here – so why not?”
Berrer broke early in the final set and led 3-1, sometimes finding angles which perhaps only a fellow lefty could manage against Nadal.
The French Open champion almost broke back immediately, but a Hawkeye decision showed his ground stroke to have landed a millimetre beyond the baseline, and his only real chance after that came in the final game.
That saw Berrer slip to 15-40, only to produce two good first serves, and then go back break point down by delivering a double fault, before attacking the net on each of the last three points and finding Nadal unable to come up with any of those rasping passing shots for which he has become so renowned.
Earlier Novak Djokovic, who succeeded Nadal as world No 1 in June, made a satisfactory start with a 6-1, 6-4 win over his Serbian compatriot Dusan Lajovic.
“I didn’t know during the last couple of days whether I would be able to play,” Djokovic said, referring to the fever he has had. “So in the circumstances it was a very good start.”
Djokovic next plays Sergiy Stakhovsky, the world No 57 from Ukraine, while Berrer will face Ivan Dodig, the world No 89 from Croatia.
Two seeds went out – Philipp Kohlschreiber, the No 5 from Germany, beaten in three sets by his 58th-ranked compatriot, Jan-Lennard Struff, and Leonardo Mayer, the No 8 from Argentina, who was beaten 7-5, 6-7 (4/7), 6-7 (4/7) by Andreas Seppi, the world No 45 from Italy.
Tomas Berdych was also a winner on Tuesday, topping Denis Istomin 6-1, 6-4 and David Ferrer beat Thiemo De Bakker despite dropping the first set.
World No 171 Nikoloz Basilashvili also scored a memorable top 50 win over Mikhail Youzhny. He’ll play world No 27 Ivo Karlovic on Wednesday night in Doha.
ATP Brisbane
Kei Nishikori had a 6-4, 7-5 victory over Steve Johnson at the Brisbane International on Wednesday, providing a winning start to a season in which he hopes to be at the vanguard of younger players aiming to end the dominance of the old guard in men’s tennis.
The 25-year-old Japanese player set benchmarks for Asian men in tennis during a breakout 2014, reaching his first grand slam final at the US Open and rising to a year-end No 5 ranking as he won four titles.
After a first-round bye, second-seeded Nishikori needed only 80 minutes to advance through the second round, serving out on his fourth match point against Johnson.
“I saved a couple break points with good serve, and had a couple aces,” he said. “But it’s the first tournament, first match of the year, so I tried to play a little better as the match is going on.”
He is feeling his way into the new year, knowing that expectations on him are much higher in Japan, and around the world. The Australian Open, the first major of the season, starts on January 19 in Melbourne.
In an earlier men’s second-round match, Martin Klizan of Slovakia beat seventh-seeded Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine 1-6, 7-6 (8/6), 7-6 (9/7).
In a later match, Grigor Dimitrov edged Jeremy Chardy in a tight match, losing the first set and overcoming in a lengthy third-set tie break 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (10/8).
Dimitrov and Klizan will meet in the quarter-finals.
Later on Wednesday Australian youngesters Thanasi Kokkinakis, 18, and Bernard Tomic, 22, will face off for the right to face Nishikori.
The tournament’s top seed, Roger Federer, plays local qualifier John Millman on Thursday.
WTA Auckland
At the Auckland Classic on Wednesday, Venus Williams reached the quarter-finals with a 6-4, 6-1 win over Kurumi Nara of Japan.
Williams’ serve was shaky at times in the first set and she faced several deuce games before taking the set in 40 minutes. The 34-year-old, seven-time major winner recovered to win the second set in only 25 minutes, breaking Nara’s serve to take the match.
“She really was playing some great tennis in the first set and she’s very tenacious,” Williams said. “It seemed like any ball I didn’t hit on the baseline she was stepping up to hit winners.
“It took a while to figure it out but I’m very happy to come through.”
Third-seeded Williams will next face Russia’s Elena Vesnina, who had a 6-3, 6-1 win over Ana Konjuh. Williams and Vesnina have met three times with Vesnina winning twice, including in the first round at Wimbledon in 2012.
Caroline Wozniacki also dismissed American Taylor Townsend 6-1, 7-6 (7/4), while Coco Vandeweghe, Urzula Radwanska, Barbora Zahlavova Strycova and Julia Gorges were among the other winners.
ATP Chennai
Swedish 18-year-old world No 227 Elias Ymer beat a top 100 opponent at the ATP Chennai Open on Tuesday, stunning Igor Sijsling of the Netherlands 6-4, 4-6, 6-3.
The relatively unknown youth of Ethiopian descent had just one previous win on the ATP tour before, last July over Mikhail Kukushkin in the first round at Bastad.
Ymer will face eighth-seeded Gilles Muller in the last 16 of the $450,000 (Dh1.6m) season opening tournament in southern India
Japan’s No 2 Tatsuma Ito moved into the second round as well, with a straight-sets win over Indian wildcard Ramkumar Ramanathan.
The 87th-ranked Ito won 6-3, 6-3 on the centre court of the Nungambakkam tennis stadium.
“It is good to start the year with a win, but I must play a consistent game to go forward,” said Ito, who next plays fifth seed Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain.
Garcia-Lopez overcame the loss in the tie-breaker of the first set to edge past error-prone qualifier Evgeny Donskoy of Russia 6-7 (3/7), 6-2, 6-3 in two hours.
Sixth seed Yen-hsun Lu of Taiwan also breezed through to the next round with a 6-3, 6-4 win over India’s top player Somdev Devvarman.
“One is always a bit worried at the start of a season, but I think I played okay,” the 31-year-old Lu said. “I hope I can do well in the other matches.”
Lu’s next opponent will be Spaniard Pablo Carreno-Busta, who beat Alejandro Gonzalez of Colombia 6-1, 6-3.
Ricardas Berankis of Lithuania beat qualifier Luca Vanni of Italy 6-1, 2-6, 7-5, while another qualifier, Aljaz Bedene of Slovenia, brushed aside Lukas Lacko of Slovakia 7-6 (7/0), 6-3 to set up a tough second round meeting against second seed Feliciano Lopez of Spain.
Australian Open champion and world No 4 Stan Wawrinka leads the 32-man field, but faces Croatian’s hot-shot 18-year-old Borna Coric in the second round.
Other leading contenders are Belgium’s David Goffin and Spain’s Roberto Bautista-Agut.
Hopman Cup
At the Hopman Cup in Perth, Poland remained the only undefeated team in Group B with a 2-1 win over Britain.
Agnieskza Radwanska gave Poland a 1-0 lead when she beat Heather Watson 6-3, 6-1, but Andy Murray levelled with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Jerzy Janowicz.
Radwanska and Janowicz won the deciding mixed doubles 6-4, 6-4, and can clinch a place in Saturday’s final with a win Friday over France.
WTA Brisbane
Ana Ivanovic will make her season debut later on Wednesday against Jarmila Gajdosova at Brisbane, looking to reach a quarter-final round that already includes the likes of Angelique Kerber, Maria Sharpova and Carla Suarez Navarro.
Suarez Navarro beat Mirjana Lucic-Baroni earlier on Wednesday to set up the last eight meeting with Sharapova while Alla Kudryavtseva also beat Karolina Pliskova.
WTA Shenzhen
Former world No 2 Vera Zvonareva continued on the comback trail, scoring a 6-3, 7-6 (7/5) win over Cagla Buyukakcay of Turkey on Wednesday.
The win was her second in China, after earlier defeating Chinese No 1 Peng Shuai, and propels her into a quarter-final match with eighth-seeded Timea Bacsinszky, who herself defeated Karin Knapp in straight sets on Wednesday.
World No 3 Simona Halep also cruised comfortably into the quarter-finals with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Natalia Vikhlyantseva.
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