Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova advance to third round at Australian Open

But Verdasco’s 7-6, 4-6, 3-6 7-6, 6-2 victory was not the result of a poor performance by the 14-time Grand Slam victor.

Konta, who was born in Sydney and competed as an Australian until 2012, said later, “When the draw came out and I saw who I was playing, I thought, ‘OK, hope I stay out there for more than an hour'”.

Maria Sharapova feels she is growing in confidence at the Australian Open after cruising into the third round.

It was the eighth time she has lost in the first round of a Grand Slam tournament and the third time in Australia.

The American’s troublesome knee forced her to pull out of the Hopman Cup last week and she was pictured taking treatment during a practice session in Melbourne on Saturday.

Other women’s singles first-round winners in early matches Tuesday were No. 3 Garbine Muguruza of Spain, No. 9 Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic, No. 11 Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland, No. 15 Madison Keys of the United States, No. 18 Elina Svitolina of Ukraine, No. 19 Jelena Jankovic of Serbia, No. 20 Ana Ivanovic of Serbia, No. 21 Ekaterina Makarova of Russian Federation and No. 30 Sabine Lisicki of Germany.

Williams was on course for a calendar-year Grand Slam in 2015 with wins here and at the French Open and Wimbledon before a semifinal loss at the U.S. Open to Roberta Vinci of Italy.

A day after top-seeded Serena Williams won her first-round match at the Australian Open with little trouble, the news was not as good for Venus Williams in the first Grand Slam tournament of the year.

The 92nd-ranked Kateryna Bondarenko earned one of her biggest victories since returning from retirement after having a baby in 2013, beating two-time major victor and No. 23-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-1, 7-5. “She’s really good, a talented player”. “I would assume (Venus will be back)”.

“I don’t know if I have done that”, she added.

“Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose and today I won”.

Konta said, “It’s irrelevant how old she is because she’s such a champion with so much experience and knowledge. It was way too quick for my game”, Bedene said.

Defending Australian Open champion Venus Williams looked more exhausted by the post-match media conference than her second-round romp at Melbourne Park.

Konta is playing in the Australian Open main draw for the first time.

Konta jumped to a 5-2 lead in the first set, and while Williams was able to fight back by winning two games in a row, the British player closed out the opening set by winning the clinching game of the set at love.

“She was definitely a tricky opponent but it was a good match for me to play someone like that”.