Australian Open day 2: Rafa Nadal tops, Sharapova flops and Fognini gets anger

Australian Open day 2 showed the great physical shape of Rafael Nadal, who reached the second round of the Australian Slam. Dominic Thiem, Marin Cilic, Daniil Medvedev, Alexander Zverev, Milos Raonic, Kevin Anderson, Stan Wawrinka, Nick Kyrgios, Gael Monfils, Simona Halep, Angelique Kerber, Elina Svitolina, Garbine Muguruza, Karolina Pliskova and Dayana Yastremska also reached the second round. Maria Sharapova and Johanna Konta crashed out. 

Jannik Sinner won his first match in a Slam, while his countryman Fabio Fognini was the protagonist of a new controversial episode against the chair umpire, during which the Italian complained about a penalty point; despite this, he won his match (against Reilly Opelka) and he reached the second round.

Tim Henman, Great Britain captain at the ATP Cup, talked about the chances of the Big Three in the Slams: "Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic are yet another level. Stefanos Tsitsipas took a big step forward by winning the ATP Finals. Alexander Zverev and Dominic Thiem proved to be very close to winning important tournaments, but the Big Three remain the favorites to conquer all the Slams even in 2020".

It was reported Novak Djokovic split from his strategic and statistical analyst Craig O'Shannessy at the end of 2019 season. Together they worked for some time and they won four Grand Slam titles during their collaboration.

Rafael Nadal talked about the Slam record, which still belongs to Roger Federer: "Winning 20 or 25 Grand Slam tournaments will not give me full happiness. It makes me motivated and charged, obviously, and it excites me, but so many beautiful things have happened in all these years that I can only be grateful to the life and people who have helped me. The reality is simple: you can have all the titles you want, but if you don't have the opportunity to enjoy life with the people you love, it's all useless. I think so."

The second-round matches in Melbourne begin tomorrow: Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Serena Williams and Caroline Wozniacki will come back on the court.

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2NK0p9u