De Minaur loss puts Aussies out of ATP Cup A Set the default text size A Set large text size
Replay A Set the default text size A Set large text size
Australia won the battle but not the war, bowing out of the ATP Cup despite beating Greece 2-1 in their final round-robin match.
Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas effectively scuppered the home country’s slim hopes of making the semi-finals with a straight-sets win over Alex de Minaur.
While Australia went on to claim the tie with wins for John Millman and the doubles pairing of John Peers and Luke Saville, the side’s 3-0 opening loss to Spain will weigh too heavily against them in the standings.
Serena Williams admitted Monday that she might have been forced to skip the Australian Open if it hadn’t been delayed over the coronavirus, saying she needed extra time to shake off the achilles injury which cut short her 2020 season.
Williams, who beat Daria Gavrilova in her Yarra Valley Classic opener in Melbourne, suffered the injury at last year’s US Open then withdrew from the French Open before the second round, ending her 2020 campaign
Barty makes winning return in Melbourne
A Day at the Drive Exhibition
MELBOURNE (Reuters) – World number one Ash Barty marked her return to competitive tennis after almost a year out with a 6-3 6-3 win over Romania’s Ana Bogdan in the second round of Yarra Valley Classic on Tuesday.
The 24-year-old Australian had not played a competitive match since last February due to the COVID-19 pandemic, opting to skip the U.S. Open and not defend her title at the rescheduled French Open in September.
Barty went down narrowly to world number two Simona Halep in last week’s exhibition event in Adelaide but was back to winning ways on Tuesday, facing a single breakpoint on her serve in the match.
Whether being confined to a luxury hotel room for 14 days constitutes a hardship or not would seem to depend on the mindset of the individual. In the case of tennis players quarantining ahead of the Australian Open, one man’s comfort appears to be another man’s torture. Or woman’s, for those forced into washing their own hair. Oh, the indignity! Jonny O’Mara falls into the category of those who believe there are a lot worse things happening in the world than being confined to barracks. The Scottish doubles specialist admits he’s one of the fortunate ones still allowed out for five hours a day to train and exercise, unlike the 72 players who flew in on flights that produced positive cases and now have to isolate for a fortnight within the confines of their rooms.