Latest news with #AleksandarVukic
News.com.au
a day ago
- Sport
- News.com.au
Daria Kasatkina advances at Wimbledon after gut-wrenching moment, fellow Aussies tumble
Australia's Wimbledon 2025 campaign has been a rollercoaster of standout performances and nightmarish early exits, with top-ranked Alex de Minaur leading the charge as big name Aussies tumbled around him. Australia's Wimbledon hopes now rest on a good mix of seasoned fighters and hungry up-and-comers. De Minaur opened his tournament with a commanding straight-sets win over Spain's Roberto Carballés Baena, 6-2, 6-2, 7-6 (2), showing a lot of his characteristic baseline aggression to rack up 38 winners. A brief delay caused by an unwell ball boy did little to shake his composure. 'It felt like a very solid match against a tough competitor... At the end I had to lift my level when I needed it and played some clutch tennis to finish it off,' he said after the match. Daria Kasatkina, who is representing Australia for the first time at Wimbledon, was the only women's star to make it through, downing Colombia's Emiliana Arango after a gut-wrenching moment seconds before stepping on the court. The 28-year-old admitted nerves got the better of her as she vomited just beside the court. 'A lot of people saw it five metres from the court. I vomit, so just before entering the court, yes, the little accident happened, like, completely out of nerves.' But it didn't matter one bit. She went on to beat Arango 7-5, 6-3. Meanwhile, Sydney-born Aleksandar Vukic pulled together a four-set win over Tseng Chun-Hsin, marking his third consecutive first-round victory at the All England Club. He now faces world No.1 Jannik Sinner in a daunting second-round clash. Jordan Thompson staged a gutsy comeback from two sets down to defeat Vit Kopriva in five, showing a lot of grit despite a lingering back injury. But Rinky Hijikata delivered perhaps the cleanest win of the lot, dismantling former world No.7 David Goffin 6-3, 6-1, 6-1 with 27 winners and just 10 unforced errors. Then came the losses. 20th seed Alexei Popyrin was bounced in four sets by British wildcard Arthur Fery 4-6 1-6 6-4 4-6, as Ajla Tomljanovic bowed out in a tight three-set match against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-4 3-6 2-6. James McCabe's Grand Slam debut also ended quickly with a straight-sets loss to Fabian Marozsan, while Adam Walton fought back from two sets down only to lose in five to Arthur Cazaux.
The Guardian
a day ago
- Sport
- The Guardian
Alex de Minaur and Daria Kasatkina put Wimbledon challenge back on track
Australia's Wimbledon challenge has been reinvigorated with the national No 1s Alex de Minaur and Daria Kasatkina claiming wins on day two. After a disastrous first day that saw seven Australians knocked out, the pair raced into the second round by early afternoon and were swiftly joined by Aleksandar Vukic. On another hot day in London, 16th seed Kasatkina became the first Aussie woman to clear the opening hurdle with a 7-5 6-3 victory over Colombian Emiliana Arango. Having lost her three matches on grass this season, it was no surprise Kasatkina made hard work of subduing her lively opponent, and she revealed she had been so nervous in her first Wimbledon since switching her allegiance to Australia that she vomited outside just before entering court 14. 'A lot of people saw it five metres from the court. I vomit, so just before entering the court, yes, the little accident happened, like, completely out of nerves,' she explained. 'There was nothing else wrong with me except this. The nerves came from not having enough confidence, losing couple of matches in a row, playing the first match of the day.' She did not help her cause by dishing up 11 double faults and 38 unforced errors against the world No 76, but the South American contributed to her own defeat, making 39 errors of her own. De Minaur was far more authoritative in his first grand slam appearance since taking a break after his calamitous second-round exit at the French Open, beating Spain's Roberto Carballes Baena 6-2 6-2 7-6 (7-2) in two hours 25 minutes. Despite a delay for an unwell ball boy just as he was serving to stay in the third set at 5-6, de Minaur came through. The No 11 seed's form was encouraging given his lack of match practice on grass. He had skipped his defence of 's-Hertogenbosch to recover from feeling burned out after his early exit from Roland Garros, then lost in the first round at Queen's Club. Vukic had a useful workout in beating Chinese Taipei's Chun-Hsin Tseng 6-3 6-4 4-6 7-6 (7-5) in four minutes over three hours. That set up a daunting meeting with world No 1 Jannik Sinner who made an impressive start to his Wimbledon campaign beating compatriot Luca Nardi 6-4 6-3 6-0. However, two Aussie qualifiers lost. Priscilla Hon went down 6-2 7-5 to Russian 18th seed Ekaterina Alexandrova while Sydney's James McCabe struggled on his Wimbledon main draw debut, well beaten 6-1 6-4 6-3 by Hungary's world No.58, Fabian Marozsan.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
No. 1 Jannik Sinner off to winning start at Wimbledon with rout of Luca Nardi
LONDON (AP) — Top-ranked Jannik Sinner got his Wimbledon campaign off to an ideal start by beating Luca Nardi 6-4, 6-3, 6-0 in an all-Italian matchup on Tuesday. The three-time Grand Slam champion, who lost a five-set French Open final to Carlos Alcaraz, is in search of his first Wimbledon title. He was a semifinalist at the All England Club in 2023. Advertisement 'First matches are never easy so I'm very happy about my performance,' he said in his on-court interview. 'It's a new tournament, new chances, new challenges. You have one opponent at a time.' Sinner will play Aleksandar Vukic of Australia in the second round. ___ AP tennis: The Associated Press
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Wimbledon 2025: World no1 Jannik Sinner lays down marker with blistering first-round win
Advantage, Jannik Sinner? If Wimbledon does prove to be the latest Grand Slam to build to a crescendo of another heavyweight showdown between Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, the first two days of the championships have surely gone better than the world number one could have hoped. Advertisement An opening defeat for Alcaraz against Fabio Fognini would, naturally, have been Sinner's preferred outcome, but a four-and-a-half hour, five-set epic in blistering heat was a decent consolation prize. A day later, Sinner avoided any such titanic tussle of his own, proving far too strong and not facing a single break point in beating Luca Nardi 6-4 6-3 6-0 on No1 Court. He will face Australian Aleksandar Vukic in the second round, a man who has managed to take just 11 games off Sinner across their two previous meetings. It did not necessarily always look like being the opening Wimbledon cruise it turned into for Sinner. Nardi had to survive three break points in his opening service game but as nervy starts on the big stage go, this was nothing too shaky. Advertisement He held his own in the baseline exchanges and when the mistakes did come, he swiftly atoned. Nardi threw in three double faults when 4-3 down, gifting Sinner a couple of break points, only to respond with a booming ace to keep the top seed at bay. For 45 minutes, then, the set remained in the balance, but Sinner needed just a few seconds to ensure Nardi's efforts were in vain. With his opponent serving to extend the set, Sinner produced a stunning forehand winner down the line to bring up two set points and converted the second of them, Nardi broken to lose the set without doing much wrong. That was a body blow and the impact was clear, Sinner needing just ten minutes of the second set to break and take a 3-0 lead at the change of ends. There was little encouragement for Nardi on the Sinner serve, unable to even get within sight break, and it left him having to scramble desperately on his own delivery just to stay in touch. Advertisement He threw everything at one forehand from the back of the court, only to watch in disbelief as Sinner, on the run and at full stretch, dropped it back over the net. Nardi could have been forgiven for scratching his head as he trudged back to the baseline, but instead he used it to nod away a ball bounced in his direction. A rare missed forehand from Sinner wasted the chance to bring up a set point on Nardi's serve at 5-2, though he did not have to wait long. A hold to 15 in the following game moved Sinner a game away from victory. Players who have beaten Sinner from two-sets down form a fairly exclusive club - Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic and, somewhat more surprisingly, Karen Khachanov - and a fourth addition to that group was never on the cards. Nardi drew the biggest cheer of the afternoon when coming out on top in a bruising rally to save the second of two break points at the start of the the third set. The reprieve, though, was brief, and Sinner had his break by the end of the game. Advertisement That was the start of a run of ten straight points for Sinner, bringing him a double break and a 3-0 lead. Minutes later it was 5-0. Sinner was firmly in cruise control as he served for the match, so much so he hit one shot from behind the baseline through his legs. That was one of only two points he lost on serve in the third set, as he otherwise sprinted to the finish line.
BBC News
2 days ago
- Sport
- BBC News
Sinner cruises into Wimbledon second round
Wimbledon 2025Venue: All England Club Dates: 30 June-13 JulyCoverage: Live across BBC TV, radio and online with extensive coverage on BBC iPlayer, Red Button, Connected TVs and mobile app. Full coverage guide. World number one Jannik Sinner cruised into the second round at Wimbledon with a dominant straight-set win over fellow Italian Luca his first Grand Slam match since losing one of the all-time great French Open finals to Carlos Alcaraz last month, Sinner lost just seven games as he dismissed 95th-ranked 23-year-old, a three-time major winner, comprehensively outclassed his opponent in a 6-4 6-3 6-0 victory on Court completing an efficient victory in one hour and 48 minutes on the UK's hottest day of the year, Sinner will face Australian Aleksandar Vukic next."New tournament, new chances, new challenges," Sinner said, reflecting on his French Open loss."You have one opponent at a time, so obviously I try to keep going and enjoy playing here."If you don't enjoy playing on these courts, I don't know where you will enjoy [it]. I'm very happy to be here and let's see what is coming." Nardi, 21, offered resistance in the first set and managed to escape the first five break points he it was not long before Sinner asserted taking his seventh opportunity to clinch the breakthrough and capture the first set, Sinner carried that momentum into the second as he raced into a 3-0 gulf between the players became increasingly apparent as the match wore on, with Nardi unable to live with Sinner's devastating combination of pace, power and precision the second set lasted less than 40 minutes, the third barely stretched beyond 20 as Sinner sealed victory with a third-set ended the match with 28 winners compared with just 17 unforced errors as he demonstrated why he has reached at least the quarter-finals at Wimbledon for the past three performance was achieved despite his only pre-Wimbledon grass-court tournament at the Halle Open being cut short by a surprise second-round loss to Alexander after his devastating defeat by Alcaraz in Paris, in which he squandered a two-set lead and three championship points in a five-and-a-half-hour epic, Sinner has announced his arrival as one of the title favourites at SW19.
