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Nick Kyrgios has taken another swipe at critics after his pre-Australian Open exhibition practice match with Novak Djokovic swiftly sold out.
The pair will play on Friday night at Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena for 75 minutes under match conditions, with umpires, ballkids and electronic line-calling.
The $20 tickets for the contest between last year’s Wimbledon finalists went on sale on Tuesday and reportedly sold out in just under an hour.
“Wow Nick Kyrgios is bad for the sport! Wow what a disgrace, a national embarrassment! How dare he sell out another stadium, the arrogance,” Kyrgios wrote on Twitter.
Kyrgios’ lead-up to the first grand slam of the year has been clouded by injury. He pulled out of the United Cup and Adelaide International 2 due to an ankle problem.
Proceeds from the practice match are going towards the Australian Tennis Foundation.
“Nick is focused on doing the best he can,” tournament director Craig Tiley told reporters earlier this week.
“He wants to win grand slams, so he’s giving himself the best opportunity to prepare and Friday night will be a really good practice match for him, as it will be for Novak.
“That’s going to be a fun night to really launch the beginning of the year and he’ll be ready.”
Tennis great Rafael Nadal has become a new team owner in the world’s first all-electric race boat championship, organisers say.
The announcement came as Nadal was in Melbourne on Tuesday preparing the defend his Australian Open title.
Nadal will enter his own team for the inaugural season of the UIM E1 World Championship, which is set to begin later this year at various cities.
The series is the brainchild of Alejandro Agag, founder of the electric Formula E and Extreme E motor racing and off-road series.
Nadal follows a growing list of sports stars to own a team in the championship, including Red Bull’s Formula One driver Sergio Perez.
“I’m really excited to be getting involved with a project like E1 that values sustainability and will make a positive impact on society as a whole, especially in coastal communities,” Nadal said in a statement.
“I also like the fact that E1 has a clear mission and is committed to preserving marine ecosystems. As a professional athlete, I recognise how making marginal gains has a positive impact on performance.”
(Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)
John Millman has saved two match points and kick-started his season with a comeback defeat of Albert Ramos-Vinolas at the Adelaide International 2.
The dogged Australian prevailed 4-6 6-3 7-6 (8-6) on Tuesday, winning the final four points of the contest to snatch a round-one win from under the Spaniard’s nose.
Wildcard Jason Kubler followed in his fellow Queenslander’s footsteps in the evening, ousting Argentinian qualifier Tomas Martin Etcheverry 7-6 (7-2) 7-5.
Millman, who qualified for the Adelaide event, is rallying after a bizarre eye injury contributed to a battling 2022.
Playing in Mexico last February a ball deflected off his racquet in between points and struck him in the eye, scratching his cornea.
Ranked 80th in the world at the time, the man who beat Roger Federer at the 2018 US Open finished the year down at No.147 in the world.
“Last year was pretty average for me; I feel refreshed,” Millman said.
“Back-to-back matches in the last couple of days; you’ve just got to get that winning feeling and it’s not easy to come by here, even in qualies.
“I’ll take that momentum any day of the week.”
A see-sawing final set saw Millman down an early break then up 4-2, only to relinquish his advantage and then play fearlessly with the match on the line.
Millman hit just two winners in a tame first set but opened up in the second with 11, then ventured to the net in the third set in a move that turned the tables on the world No.38.
“Even at 33 I’m still trying to add little bits to my game,” Millman said.
“Obviously it’s (approaching the net) something that could have won me a few more matches early in my career.”
Millman has set up a second round match with seventh seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, while Kubler will play sixth seeded Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic.
Kubler, whose impressive wins at the recent United Cup have catapulted him to a career-high world No.86, turned on the power against Etcheverry.
Jason Kubler. (Photo by Brett Hemmings/Getty Images)
He also had to overcome a power outage that briefly cut the lights midway through the second set.
Both Millman and Kubler were earlier this month granted wildcards for the Australian Open starting next week.
It wasn’t a good day for Australia’s world No.79 Chris O’Connell, who fell 6-4 7-5 to surging American Tommy Paul.
O’Connell, a lucky loser entrant into the main draw after losing to Millman in qualifying, went toe-to-toe with the world No.35 in the 90-minute scrap.
Paul pounced at the crucial moments, breaking O’Connell at 4-5 to claim the first set and repeating the dose at 5-6 after an equally evenly-poised second set.
O’Connell will switch focus to the Australian Open, the much-improved Sydney product now entrenched in the top 100 after surging about 400 places to sit just outside of the mark in 2019.
World No.9 Veronika Kudermetova has held off a dogged showing from two-time Australian Open winner Victoria Azarenka to move to the second round of the Adelaide International 2.
Kudermetova, who cracked the top 10 for the first time last year, came from a set down in the 2-6 7-6 (7-4) 6-4 victory on Tuesday that took almost three hours.
“I am really happy about this win, it means a lot against (Victoria),” the 25-year-old said on court after the match.
“Every win, I have a little bit more confidence. It was a really tough match, really up and down.”
The Russian had to fight back from 0-3 down in the second set tiebreak.
Kudermetova, an accomplished doubles player who won five double titles in 2022, will meet countrywoman Ekaterina Alexandrova for a place in the quarter-finals.
Zheng Qinwen stormed home to beat Shelby Rogers 4-6 6-4 6-0 to book a date with Petra Kvitova while Barbora Krejcikova ousted Alison Riske-Amritraj 6-2 7-6 (7-3).
Anna Kalinskaya upset world No.18 Jelena Ostapenko 6-3 6-4 and Katerina Siniakova was leading 6-1 1-0 when Anastasia Potapova retired.
Former Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin has made a bright start at the Hobart International, where seeded players Elise Mertens and Alize Cornet crashed out in the first round.
Kenin, whose ranking has fallen to world No.143 three years after her Melbourne Park triumph, notched a 6-2 6-2 win over 85-ranked Lin Zhu on Tuesday.
She’ll meet Maryna Zanevska in the second round after the Belgium qualifier upset countrywoman and second seed Mertens 6-4 6-4.
Kenin, herself a winner in Hobart in 2019, has battled injury and poor form in recent seasons and needed a wildcard to gain entry to this year’s tournament.
“I feel like I played well out there. It was tough conditions. I’m happy with the way I’m playing, so I’m just going to try and keep it going,” she said.
Mertens, a two-time Hobart winner and world No.27, had treatment on her right shoulder midway through the second set against Zanevska.
Third seed and former winner Cornet was the other higher profile name to go down on Tuesday, the 2016 winner beaten 6-4 6-2 by Italian 21-year-old Elisabetta Cocciaretto.
Cocciaretto will next meet countrywoman Jasmine Paolini for a place in the quarter-finals.
Sixth seed Bernarda Pera beat fellow American Madison Brengle in straight sets and eighth seed Yulia Putintseva toppled Claire Liu 6-2 6-4.
Gregoire Barrere has withstood a barrage of aces from John Isner and a change of court triggered by Cyclone Hale to upset the American sixth seed at the Auckland Open.
French qualifier Barrere and US veteran Isner were forced indoors by the adverse weather threat in New Zealand, with the entire Tuesday schedule taking place on inside courts and without spectators.
Despite Isner rifling down 28 aces to move 10 away from becoming the first man to post 14,000 in ATP tour and grand slam events, Barrere stuck with him and pulled off a 6-7 (3-7) 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 victory.
He snatched the only break of the match in game eight of the deciding set, before serving out for victory, with the world No. 88 firing down 10 aces himself across the contest.
Argentine seventh seed Sebastian Baez also fell at the last-32 stage, bowing out 7-6 (7-1) 6-1 to American wildcard Ben Shelton.
Serbian Laslo Djere set up a second-round clash with top seed Casper Ruud by edging out Spain’s Jaume Munar 3-6 6-1 7-6 (7-4), while Czech Jiri Lehecka will face second seed Cameron Norrie after sinking Brazilian fellow qualifier Thiago Monteiro 6-3 7-5.
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