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Tennis News, Stefanos Tsitsipas advances to Round 3 of 2022 Australian Open after a competitive R2 match-up today v Argentine Sebastian Baez at Margaret Court Arena

by Sports Benches

Another decent match-up we’ve just seen on the 4th Day of the 2022 Australian Open as Stefanos Tsitsipas went from the opening set down to the next three sets nailed down against Argentine Sebastian Baez at Margaret Court Arena, he will wait for either Grigor Dimitrov from Bulgaria or Frenchman Benoit Paire as his next opponent for Round 3.

Final Score: 6-7 via 1-7 tiebreaker, 7-6 via 7-5 tiebreaker, 3-6, 4-6

Unlucky from Baez with the loss where he fired off well with the narrow 1st set lead via the tiebreaker, although he never gave up continuing that fight having won some games back along the way but just couldn’t hold back an elite opponent from the Top 5 like Tsitsipas in the end. He will leave Melbourne Park with room for improvement whenever Baez plats next time, but at least he just pocketed over $100,000 prize money after his 1st career Grand Slam win from the previous round v Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas.

And how good is Tsitsipas, who terrifically completed this match-up, as he came out from the 1st set loss & tied Baez 1-1 through another tiebreak through the wire before the Greek managed to renew his momentum through the 2nd half run in Sets 3 & 4 that became his turning point towards the homestretch.

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Tennis News, Alex De Minaur continues his winning start on R2 of the 2022 Australian Open campaign in straight sets v Kamil Majchrzak at Rod Laver Arena

by Sports Benches

Alex De Minaur continues his winning start to the 2022 Australian Open campaign with a comfortable win against Poland’s Kamil Majchrzak in straight sets (4-6, 4-6, 2-6) at Rod Laver Arena, he wrapped this 2nd Round tie in 1 hour and 39 minutes.

De Minaur always got his build-up base up and running that helped stay ahead over Majchrzak, it gave the Aussie ample time to get the job done during the first two sets while the Pole began to catch up before he shut his opponent out towards the finish line with a nice & easy third set spell.

His best result here was Round 3 twice in 2019 & 2021 where De Minaur hopes to get past the Spaniard in Pablo Andujar before Round 4, and as long as he keeps that winning form then a Finals eight spot will come to him having made it once two years ago at the US Open.

And Majchrzak didn’t have a great day out, who did his best to hold back De Minaur, having won some games & closed in along the way towards the end of these first two sets. However, he just couldn’t hijack his opponent’s stella momentum & finish it off his way before Majchrzak became eliminated so quick in the 3rd & final set.

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Tennis News, Sam Stosur wraps up her singles career at the 2022 Australian Open with the doubles still the come before beginning retirement after her defeat in RD2 v Anastasia Pavlychenkova

by Sports Benches

Sam Stosur may have just been eliminated in Round 2 from this year’s Australian Open women’s singles tournament by 10th seed Russian Anastasia Pavlychenkova (2-6, 2-6), but what a stellar career she’s had in the singles circuit for a long time having been runner-up in the 2010 French Open, won the 2011 US Open women’s singles title & an elite player in the doubles with four grand slam championships too.

Now she still has the doubles campaign to play a part later on in Melbourne with Zhang Shuai (Women’s doubles) & Matt Ebden (Mixed doubles), but Stosur will also want to end things on a high note on home soil before she begins retirement off the court & spend more time with her partner Liz and 1 1/2 year old daughter Genevieve.

It’s great to see Sam Stosur lift the profile of Tennis in Australia that inspires these kids to take up this sport & follow her lead in the hope of becoming the next Grand Slam star, have a look at Ash Barty, who currently holds the baton in this legacy, having won the French Open in 2019 as well as Wimbledon last year & now she hopes to become the next Aussie win at home for the first time since Chris O’Neil in 1978.

For now, we wish her all the best on life off the court.

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Tennis News, Chris O’Connell advances to Round 3 of the 2022 Australian Open after he nailed down 13th seed Diego Schwartzman from Argentina in straight sets

by Sports Benches

Outstanding performance from Chris O’Connell on Round 2 of the 2022 Australian Open as he just knocked down Diego Schwartzman from Argentina in straight sets (6-4 via 6-8 tiebreaker, 4-6 & 4-6), even though it was a really close battle throughout the entire three-hour tie at Court No.3.

Schwartzman was gutted to be eliminated on Day 4 after he came here as the 13th seed in this draw, he showed some fight a couple of times where he did his best to close in on O’Connell & didn’t take his opponent lightly. However, he couldn’t hold the Australian back every time his opponent won set after set, plus he was also hesitant about the lack of conversions which is something Schwartzman couldn’t back up on the tennis court today.

And congratulations to Chris O’Connell with a huge & breakthrough win, it wasn’t the easiest of challenges when he came up against someone, who is closer to the Top 10 seeds, in this year’s Australian Open. Well, he managed to overcome plenty of these competitive battles against Schwartzman before O’Connell nailed it all through every checkpoint and later the finish line after three sets done early out of five.

Let’s see if he can go all the way having entered the men’s singles draw as the wildcard.

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Tennis News, Naomi Osaka advances to Round 3 & will face another American in Amanda Anisimova after an easy win v Madison Brengle tonight at Rod Laver Arena

by Sports Benches

It was an easy night for the defending Australian Open women’s champion in Naomi Osaka as she took down American Madison Brengle through straight sets 0-4, 4-6 at Rod Laver Arena, her next opponent for Round 3 on Friday will be another American in Amanda Anisimova.

For Brengle, it’s on the contrary who is disappointed with the early Australian Open exit having gone past Round 1 via walkover v Ukrainian Dayana Yastremska. She showed some fight after being beaten so easily from the first set and was so close towards securing a 3rd set decider, but Brengle left it too late where a poor start & some fightback later on made it harder to hold back Osaka.

And Osaka played outstanding as always for the whole time that secured a quick and easy win, she smashed it 6-0 in the first set before Brengle began to catch up after the break while Osaka took time to escape Brengle & eventually made it past the finish line unscathed with the win.

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Tennis News, Denis Shapovalov overcame a four-hour battle against Korean Kwon Soon-Woo as the Canadian advances to Round 3 of the 2022 Australian Open

by Sports Benches

Wow! It’s been so long for this 2nd round match-up to settle, but it’s Denis Shapovalov, who rescued himself from the 2nd & 3rd set loss against Korean Kwon Soon-woo, and worked his way back to the top spot where he held on until the end with the win at Margaret Court Arena. He will now advance to Round 3 of 2022 Australian Open and face American Reilly Opelka on Friday.

Final Score: 6-7 via 6-8 tiebreaker, 7-6 via 7-3 tiebreaker, 7-6 via 8-6 tiebreaker, 5-7 & 2-6.

Shapovalov off to a great 1st set even though it wasn’t easy to come up against a decent opponent like Soon-woo, now he kinda felt gutted at times when the Canadian was narrowly fallen short twice which almost put him at risk of elimination. However, he made up lost time that led to a 5th and final set decider before Shapovalov had an easy run towards the homestretch and won after a grueling over four-hour task on the tennis court.

And Soon-woo also fought hard for the majority with Shapovalov having gone from the opening set down to a 2nd & 3rd set win which puts him one set away towards pulling an upset, but the Korean just couldn’t find the finishing touches with the inconsistency when a poor start plus not making his opponent harder to catch up by closing the gap between a lead and victory ultimately saw him being crashed out that quick during the final set decider.

He’ll be sure to learn that experience Soon-woo battled throughout the four-hour tie with Shapovalov and bounce back stronger next time, his best result was the Round 3 last year in the French Open so maybe that could inspire him to break even better records through Round 4 & even the Final 8.

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Tennis News, Emma Raducanu off on a flyer with the opening round win v Sloane Stephens at Margaret Court Arena

by Sports Benches

And great to see Emma Raducanu open her 2022 Australian Open journey with the opening round win against American Sloane Stephens at Margaret Court Arena (0-6, 6-2, 1-6) as she will now meet Danka Kovinic from Montenegro in Round 2 tomorrow.

The reigning US Open champion is back on form after her heavy defeat last week in the Sydney warm-up tournament v Elena Ryabakina, she was too good at the start and although her 2nd set run may be need some fine tuning where Stephens tied 1-1 but she wrapped this up quick and easy in the end that can go all the way on potentially winning another Grand Slam here.

And Stephens gutted to be out of the running this early where she kept herself in contention thanks to a brilliant response in the 2nd set, but she was ultimately outclassed by Emma Raducanu & just couldn’t keep up to her standards with such heavy losses in the 1st and 3rd sets for the majority.

#Tennis #MargaretCourtArena #AustralianOpen #GrandSlam #WTATour #EmmaRaducanu #SloaneStephens

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Tennis News, Nick Kyrgios advances into R2 in a tough encounter ahead with Daniil Medvedev after he defeated Liam Broady in straight sets

by Sports Benches

Another Aussie who advanced into Round 2 of this year’s Australian Open tomorrow is Nick Kyrgios, he too defeated Briton Liam Broady in straight sets early in three stages at John Cain Arena (4-6, 4-6, 3-6) & will face 2nd seed & reigning US Open men’s champion Daniil Medvedev from Russia.

Kyrgios and Broady were always side by side for the whole time when they both tussled for every game and point, however, Kyrgios produced the better conversion first ahead of Broady before he sprinted a few blocks in the 3rd set & dominated this tie in the end.

And Broady is disappointed with the loss where he showed a good build-up base from the start & was so close to winning those two sets, but he just couldn’t provide the 2nd half consistency that gave Kyrgios the upper hand having felt like he’s fallen off a cliff & then couldn’t keep in contention.

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Tennis News, Alex De Minaur went from the opening set down to a terrific performance v Lorenzo Musetti last night in R1 of the 2022 Australian Open

by Sports Benches

How good was Alex De Minaur last night when he went from the opening set down to a terrific all-round performance ever since at Margaret Court Arena, he had some tough moments against Lorenzo Musetti but De Minaur found it easy as the game went on where he found the finish line first.

Meanwhile, Musetti would be disappointed not to kick on having responded beautifully with the opening set win. However, these poor starts he struggled to keep up with De Minaur was his main weakness and that’s where he was exposed with plenty of valuable lost games followed by the eventual elimination.

Final Score: 6-3, 3-6, 0-6, 3-6

De Minaur’s next opponent for Round 2 tomorrow will be Poland’s Kamil Majchrzak.

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Tennis News, Jordan Thompson so close after he won the 2nd & 3rd sets but eventually eliminated by Steve Johnson in R1 of the 2022 Australian Open

by Sports Benches

It’s been just over 3 1/2 hours of Tennis this afternoon in Round 1 of the 2022 Australian Open at Court No.3 between the Aussie Jordan Thompson and American Steve Johnson, with Johnson off on a flyer before Thompson bounced back and almost touched the home base after he won the next two sets.

However, Thompson just couldn’t hold a way to execute at all before it’s too little, too late as Johnson went from behind, won the remaining two sets and eliminated him out of the running after the best of five. Johnson will advance into Round 2 on Thursday where he will face 11th seed Jannik Sinner from Italy.

The final score is 7-6 through 7-5 tiebreaker, 6-7 via 6-8 tiebreaker, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3.

So unlucky from Thompson, who battled it out on such a hard-fought contest, and deserved to win that tie, he showed plenty of fight after he went the opening set down and felt like he was almost there towards the finish line having won the 2nd & 3rd sets. He just ran out of gas, unfortunately, when Johnson renewed that momentum from then on & executed better ahead of him.

Meanwhile, hats off to Johnson where he got past a lot of hurdles ahead of Thompson before that winning moment came to him in the end. Now he might have almost been eliminated after the 2nd & 3rd set lost despite a great start, but he never gave up when he closed in to Thompson which led to the 5th set decider, re-took the lead and ultimately came out on top as it’s job well done.

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