Aussie Open: Top Seed Halep, Venus Through As Home Hope Ousted By Raonic
15th January 2019
The Romanian had to dig deep against the woman who defeated her in last year's US Open first round, eventually winning 6-7 (2/7), 6-4, 6-2 victory
- World number one Simona Halep battled through to the Australian Open second round Tuesday with a come-from-behind win over Kaia Kanepi to stay in the tournament
- The French Open champion was a finalist at Melbourne Park last year and will be looking for a major improvement to go deep this year after such a shaky start against the world number 71
- Canadian Milos Raonic unleashed a "scary" display of ruthless serving to break the hearts of home fans and dismantle an ailing Nick Kyrgios 6-4, 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 on Tuesday
- Seven-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams turned back the clock to stage a stirring come-from-behind victory and reach the second round of the Australian Open
MELBOURNE, Australia-
World number one Simona Halep battled through to the Australian Open second
round Tuesday with a come-from-behind win over Kaia Kanepi to stay in the
tournament.
The Romanian had to dig deep against the woman who defeated
her in last year's US Open first round, eventually winning 6-7 (2/7), 6-4, 6-2
victory.
The French Open champion was a finalist at Melbourne Park
last year and will be looking for a major improvement to go deep this year
after such a shaky start against the world number 71.
"It is always difficult to play Kaia," said Halep,
who raged in frustration at her support team at times before finally taking
control of the match in the third set.
The 27-year-old top seed showed no sign of the back injury
that ended her season prematurely last year, instead she simply struggled to
cope with the Estonian's powerful groundstrokes.
Halep's horror show at Flushing Meadows would have been
repeated if Kanepi had not undermined her own cause with a mammoth 62 unforced
errors and five double faults.
She outgunned Halep with 40 winners to 25, underlining her
opponent's recent struggles.
Halep came to Melbourne Park on a five-match losing streak,
equalling the worst run of her career.
She hopes to make amends after losing an epic final to
Caroline Wozniacki last year in a defeat she said "broke me a little
bit" until she claimed her own maiden Slam at Roland Garros.
Kyrgios ousted
Canadian Milos Raonic unleashed a "scary" display
of ruthless serving to break the hearts of home fans and dismantle an ailing
Nick Kyrgios 6-4, 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 on Tuesday.
The Canadian 16th seed blasted into the second round of the
Australian Open in 1hr 56min, dropping just 11 points on his own serve against
a forlorn Kyrgios, who needed treatment several times on a taped up knee.
"When I got to 3-3, it just flared up," a dejected
Kyrgios told the physio during a break at the end of the first set.
"Every time I rock back on my serve I feel it. I did an
extended warm-up, I warmed up properly. I don't understand," he
complained.
Raonic said he didn't want to comment about his hampered
opponent's troubles after producing a near flawless exhibition of precision and
power serving.
"I don't want to say too much. It always comes down to
a few points here and there," said the former world number three who now
faces the 2014 Australian Open champion Stan Wawrinka in a blockbuster
second-round clash on Thursday.
"It's always tough against Nick anyways. Now it's on to
the next one."
Kyrgios refused to blame the knee after the match.
"It was nothing to do with my loss. He was way too good
for me," he said. "I've never seen serving as good as that. Milos
played scary."
Venus through
It is the first time that Kyrgios, who reached the last 16 a
year ago, has failed to get past the first round in six appearances at his home
Grand Slam.
Raonic has reached one Slam final in 2016 at Wimbledon where
he lost to Andy Murray.
Earlier that year he achieved his best Australian Open
result by reaching the semi-final, where he also lost to the Scot.
Seven-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams turned back
the clock to stage a stirring come-from-behind victory and reach the second
round of the Australian Open Tuesday.
The unseeded 38-year-old American lost the first set to 25th
seed Mihaela Buzarnescu of Romania but clawed her way to a gutsy 7-6 (3/7), 7-6
(7/3), 6-2 win in two hours 39 minutes.
"It was a real marathon, it was really hard to get on
top of her," said the American, who played her first Australian Open in
1998.
"She was in great form and it was pretty hairy there, a
second set tie-breaker, you never know if you're going to be in or out.
"I'm hoping this tough match will set me up for the
rest of the tournament."
Williams, who has reached the final at Melbourne Park twice,
most recently in 2017 when she lost to sister Serena, will meet Alize Cornet of
France next.