Nadal to go sleeveless for Australian Open

“That’s all I’m really focusing on”, he said about his drive to break his Grand Slam duck.

Stephens agrees the Australian Open field is still extremely tough, even without Williams, the 23-time major victor. The Swiss is considered as the favourite to win the title, but he only wants to approach match-per-match. ‘With age, I feel like I play down my chances just because I don’t think a 36-year-old should be a favourite of a tournament, it should not be the case. She had started last season by getting to the Australian Open final for the first time since also finishing as the runner-up to her sibling there in 2003.

“Happy for the start, of course”, said Nadal.

I’m going to make the most of the next fortnight because this is it for me. It’s a new situation for me. Can not say much about the others, but I am watching Novak Djokovic right now, and he seems in pretty good shape. “But I feel good”, said the 31-year-old, who played his first Australian Open in 2004.

The 40-week grind on the tennis tour every year has worn me down. Nick Kyrgios will also play his first round match in the same session.

He said he had met Federer several times and would like to see more of him, “but obviously his time is pretty well taken care of”.

“It hasn’t been 100 per cent yet healed”.

I don’t know how it’s going to behave.

But his confidence is high and he warned he could still go far.

Nadal will face Argentine veteran Leonardo Mayer on Wednesday (today).

Rafael Nadal has ringed in the nostalgia at the 2018 edition of the Australian Open, which has come as a source of great happiness for his fans after returning to a sleeveless shirt after nearly a decade.

It was the first year since 2009 that Djokovic didn’t reach at least one Grand Slam final.

And Sam and I made the semi-finals past year and lost in a super tie-break. Djokovic explains: “There are three, four details that I’ve changed with my rotation, the elbow up, which is the most obvious one. Bye bye”, said the world No. 142.

“But the thing that I need to improve, the matches will give me those things, no?”

Bidding to reclaim her mantle as the game’s best female player, the second-seeded Dane powered past Romanian Mihaela Buzarnescu 6-2, 6-3.

He will be playing on the opening day against Rogerio Dutra Silva.

It wasn’t OK for the 10th-seeded Vandeweghe, a semifinalist in Melbourne and at the U.S. Open previous year, who was feeling sick and frustrated in a 7-6 (4), 6-2 loss to Timea Babos. Garbine Muguruza, Spain; 4.

Speaking on the subject, Sky Sports quoted the 36-year-old saying: “It’s totally different”.

Second seed Caroline Wozniacki and Auckland’s ASB Classic champion Julia Goerges have both won.

And it wasn’t just the women who fared poorly by going 1-9 – including exits by U.S. Open champion Sloane Stephens, seven-time Grand Slam title victor Venus Williams, and 10th-seeded CoCo Vandeweghe.