Sania-Ram duo eases into second round of Australian Open
Melbourne: Sania Mirza and her American partner Rajeev Ram moved into the mixed doubles second round of the Australian Open with a confident straight-set win over the Serbian team of Aleksandra Krunic and Nikola Cacic, here on Thursday. Ram came out serving big and also stayed like a rock at the net as he anchored […]
Melbourne: Sania Mirza and her American partner Rajeev Ram moved into the mixed doubles second round of the Australian Open with a confident straight-set win over the Serbian team of Aleksandra Krunic and Nikola Cacic, here on Thursday. Ram came out serving big and also stayed like a rock at the net as he anchored the 6-3 7-6(3) win in the opening round that lasted 69 minutes. Ram is a defending champion in the event. He had won the mixed title here with Czech partner Barbora Krejcikova in 2021.
Mirza, who will retire after the 2022 season, also served well in the contest.
They had a chance to go up as early as in the second game but Mirza buried a forehand into the net on the deciding point.
The team got another chance on the serve of Krunic but that chance also went abegging when Mirza could not finish the point with a volley. However, they got the break on the deciding point.
Ram then served out the next game at love for a 4-1 lead. Mirza too made a lot of first serves as the team cruised towards a first-set lead. Ram’s solid serving and Mirza’s smooth volleys sealed the set for the Indo-American team. Mirza unleashed her big forehand to Krunic on a weak return from Cacic to earn the first break chance of the second set. But the Indian hit the forehand long on the deciding point.
A stunning cross court winner by Mirza earned the team two break points on Krunic’s serve in the sixth game.
But the Serbians held the game as Krunic served wide and Mirza’s return was dispatched for a volley winner by Cacic. At 5-5, Krunic came out serving big for a crucial hold and now Mirza had to serve under pressure to stretch it to a tie-breaker. But the Indian made no mistake and served out the game at love.
Both Krunic and Cacic lost a point each on their serves to hand the Indo-American duo three match points. An error in return of serve by Cacic sealed it for Mirza and Ram. Rohan Bopanna is also in fray in the mixed doubles event. He has paired up with Croatia’s Darija Jurak Schreiber and will be in action on Saturday.
Former No. 1 Murray lost to Taro Daniel in second round
Andy Murray is out of the Australian Open two days after posting his first win at the season-opening tennis Grand Slam tournament in five years.
The former No. 1-ranked Murray lost to 120th-ranked Taro Daniel 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 in the second round. Murray only lost five games in a best-of-five-set Davis Cup encounter against Daniel in their only previous encounter, and he had never lost to anyone ranked above No. 91 at a major tournament.
But Daniel, a 28-year-old qualifier from Japan, broke in the ninth game of the third set to take a 5-4 lead and then served it out to advance to the third round of a major for the first time. The 34-year-old Murray, a five-time runner-up in Australia, was playing on a wild-card entry.
His win over 21st-seeded Nikoloz Basilashvili in the first round was his first at the Australian Open since 2017. Injuries and illness kept him out in 2018 (hip), 2020 (pelvis) and 2021 (Covid-19), and he lost a five-setter in the first round in 2019, which many thought might have been his last in Australia.
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