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British Women’s No.1 Katie Boulter def. Yue Yuan to kickstart her 2024 Australian Open Tennis campaign in straight sets at Court 7

by Sports Benches

Here’s another close straights sets match we just saw not long ago over in Day 3 of the 2024 Australian Open women’s singles draw when Briton Katie Boulter has just defeated China’s Yue Yuan at Court 7 as her next opportunity next for Round 2 this Thursday will either be China’s Qinwen Zhang (12th seed) or Ashlyn Krueger from the USA. The final score was 7-5, 7-6 with 7-1 tiebreaker & the match was done in just under two hours at 1 hour & 55 mins. Great effort by Yue Yuan to keep her game up with Boulter where she was so close to getting the set done herself after giving her opponent a hard time on occasions on the court. Unfortunately, she just couldn’t hold on and get that breakthrough where Boulter had the upper hand with the win as this is her 2nd grand slam singles appearance here at Melbourne Park. We wish her all the best, having played her first WTA Tour final a few months ago (October) where she lost to American Jessica Pegula in the Korea Open.

Meanwhile, the current women’s British No.1 has played her A-game to begin her Australian Open tour with the win. She never lets herself down without a fight against her opponent right through the very end of each set before things went her way where Boulter has the better pull to get things done under pressure & she did exactly just like that today. Now this will be her 2nd round appearance since the 2019 Australian Open, but she had a great 2nd half of 2023 thanks to back-to-back 3rd Round glam performances at Wimbledon & the US Open. Let’s take one match at a time but hopefully she’ll make another big breakthrough herself just like her boyfriend of our Aussie own Alex De Minaur aka The Demon.

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Andy Murray concludes the opening day’s play of the 2022 Wimbledon with the First Round win v Australia’s James Duckworth

by Sports Benches

We wrap up the opening day of Wimbledon at Centre Court with Grand Slam veteran Andy Murray from Britain v one of our Aussies in action – James Duckworth.

What a brilliant response from Duckworth with early 1st set lead out of nowhere, having held Murray back for a while before he moved onto the 2nd set in his way. However, he just couldn’t kick on ever since where Murray had the better execution and long-run consistency in the end, with three sets being tied up to advance into Round 2 for Day 3 tomorrow v 20th Seed John Isner from the USA.

The final score is 4-6 to Duckworth; 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 to Murray.

It’s gutting to see Duckworth leave very early but great effort though to try & stay in this fight nonetheless. He’s always great at responding which is one of the traits you need to be prepared at grand slam level, having won the opening set following a poor start there. But building on that opening set lead to keep it consistent & executing it is another trait if you really want to go all the way – which is something he couldn’t do before he left it too late by the fourth set. He’s 30 now so let’s hope he learns a thing or two from the legend like Murray so Duckworth can possibly make more possible upsets like this.

And congratulations to Andy Murray with the win – who still has something to offer at the age of 35 – even though he hasn’t advanced to any finals appearance in recent years since the 2017 US Open Quarter-Finals. He was tested earlier on when his fantastic start to this opening tie was challenged by Duckworth en route for the opening set lead. At the end of the day however, he’s good at being persistent where Murray was too good over the next two sets – before he came home first at his own pace that denied Duckworth the chance to bring out the 5th & final set decider. Now Cameron Norrie may have the top-ranked seed at No.9 by a Briton, but Murray still has his supporters’ backing in a bid to get back to his best on home soil if he can get past Isner.

#Wimbledon #Tennis #GrandSlam #AndyMurray #JamesDuckworth

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