Australian Open 2017: Defending champ Angelique Kerber overcomes nerves to advance

Beginning his quest for a record-breaking seventh Melbourne title that would see him surpass Roy Emerson, defending men’s champion Djokovic faced no shortage of second-set resistance from Fernando Verdasco en route to a 6-1, 7-6, 6-2 win over an opponent that he also overcame in the semi-finals of the Qatar Open earlier this month. “She’s much smarter than I am”. It was a gamble, really.

“For me, I’m expecting the same as I was expecting the years before – going out there trying my best, fighting till the last point”, she said. They asked me if I wanted to meet him.

17/1/17 Serena Williams of the us reacts during her Women’s singles first round match against Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic.

It took a moment of Verdasco madness to open the door, the Spaniard wafting a sliced backhand well beyond the baseline to concede two set points.

Federer was plagued with knee and back injuries last year and has slipped to 17th in the rankings, the first time he dropped out of the world’s top-10 in over 14 years.

The third seed battled past fellow veteran, Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova, 6-1, 4-6, 6-1 and will next play Croat Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, who beat Chinese qualifier Wang Qiang in three sets.

“I’m happy to do an interview with you — previous year, I didn’t have the chance!” I had good weeks of practice. “So for me I already miss some easy ones”.

“Today was a good first round, he was a tough player to play”, Nadal said of Mayer. “We want to make sure we always continue to move forward and always have the opportunity to have equal rights for all”. I played all the key points well.

“I don’t know how he felt about the draw”.

And German hotshot Alexander Zverev credited a racquet-smashing tantrum with sparking his revival as he came back to beat Robin Haase 6-2, 3-6, 5-7, 6-3, 6-2.

Ivo Karlovic fired down 75 aces in a remarkable Australian Open first-round marathon against Argentina’s Horacio Zeballos which lasted five hours 15 minutes and finished with a 6-7 (6) 3-6 7-5 6-2 22-20 victory for the Croatian. “I mean, it was hot, but last week in Sydney, we experienced something a lot hotter. I stepped up and I played well”.

After Djokovic dominated the opening set, Verdasco saved two break points in ninth game of the second set, sending it eventually to the tiebreaker. He will meet Gilles Muller of Luxembourg next; Muller knocked off American Taylor Fritz 7-6 (6), 7-6 (5), 6-3.

No. 6 Gael Monfils, No. 8 Dominic Thiem, No. 13 Roberto Bautista Agut, No. 15 Grigor Dimitrov and No. 18 Richard Gasquet were among the other seeded players to advance.

U.S. Open finalist Pliskova following her title win at the Brisbane International with a 6-2, 6-0 victory over Sara Sorribes Tormo. “I’m very, very bad with the phone and I have no focus level to stay on it for more than three seconds”.

“This is what I will, after my career, remember. But this one I will definitely remember forever”.