Venus Williams sent home in first round at Australian Open

Seven-time Grand Slam champion Williams, who won the inaugural WTA Elite Trophy in 2015 as well as tournaments in Auckland and Wuhan, never got her game going.

World number one Serena Williams dispelled concerns she was struggling with a knee injury by digging deep to beat Camila Giorgi Monday in a testing start to her Australian Open campaign.

“It’s an absolute pleasure to come back to Rod Laver Arena, it’s the most successful court in my career and there have been many memorable moments in the matches I’ve played here”, he said.

Caroline Wozniacki suffered a similar fate at the hands of Kazakhstan’s Yulia Putintseva, losing 1-6 7-6(3) 6-4 while Sam Stosur, the former US Open champion, made her now traditional early exit from her home grand slam 6-4 7-6 (6).

The world No. 1 by a wide margin, Djokovic was focused from the opening point in a deliberate 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 first-round win over Hyeon Chung on Monday at the Australian Open. In reports published before the tournament, the BBC and BuzzFeed News said secret files exposed evidence of widespread suspected match-fixing at the top level of tennis, with Grand Slam winners among a core group of 16 players that tennis officials repeatedly had been warned about for suspicious behavior.

Giorgi won the first game in each set, and the Italian turned the second set into a nail-biter that was tied 5-5 before Serena broke her serve in the 11th game to take a 6-5 lead.

“Obviously I wanted to play to get some match play”.

The weather also looks set to do its part in keeping temperatures high from the off at Melbourne Park with peaks of 37 Celsius (98.6 Fahrenheit) forecast for the opening day of the year’s first grand slam.

“Right now it is still very much a blur”, added Konta, who lost in the first round at her two warm-up tournaments.

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) – When Johanna Konta found out she was playing Venus Williams in the first round of the Australian Open, she thought to herself, “I just hope I stay out there more than an hour”. “Okay, I haven’t played in a long time, but I have been playing for 30 years…” “People are talking about names, guessing who these players are, guessing those names”. She claimed her first Australian Open title way back in 2003, beating elder sister Venus in the final, and reached her sixth past year when she toppled arch-rival Maria Sharapova.

Also advancing were No. 4 Agnieszka Radwanska, who beat Christina McHale 6-2, 6-3, No. 10 Carla Suarez Navarro, No. 12 Belinda Bencic, No. 13.

The sweet-tasting energy balls were good, but the real question heading into the Australian is whether Djokovic will be able to savor the Calendar Slam this year that he so narrowly missed in 2015?

“I’m like, “I didn’t play again after that?’ Even last night they told me at the hotel (about the 2009 match) and I’m like ‘I play against him tomorrow”.

Seventh-seeded Kei Nishikori, the 2014 U.S. Open finalist, advanced with a 6-3, 7-6 (5), 6-3 win over Austin Krajicek and No. 6 Tomas Berdych beat Mirza Basic 6-4, 6-0, 6-3 to advance along with No. 15 David Goffin and No. 19 Dominic Thiem.

Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) chief Chris Kermode rejected any suggestion that match-fixing evidence had been covered up or ignored.