Baby comes first for Australian Open contender Murray

The Australian Open starts tomorrow, but the country’s most celebrated tennis icon did not mince her words, saying she much prefers the men’s tour, because matches are exciting, with the likes of world No. 1 Novak Djokovic approaching the net more often.

Now she is back in the city where she has already won six times. For him either. Will be a tough match.

Who are the other Britons competing in Melbourne?

Murray and his wife, Kim Sears, are expecting their first child in February.

Acknowledging his form, the 28-year-old said in Doha: “I’m hoping that I can actually peak and play as well as I did today in Melbourne”. It was the sort of curmudgeonly performance that had seemed a thing of the past with Williams as she worked her way towards more tennis history in 2015, falling just short of a sweep of all four majors.

“But I’ve always been someone who treats practice as meaningful and I can take that into matches”.

He takes on James Duckworth, a player ranked No. 134 but who has some massive weapons at his disposal.

Murray has lost four finals already in Melbourne and three of those came at the hands of the Serb, who is now gunning for his sixth success at the tournament.

“I don’t really ever look at the draw, so I would appreciate it if you didn’t mention it. Thank you”, she said, shutting down talk of another showdown with Sharapova. “I had a pretty good week of practice here”, she said ahead of her first-round encounter with Belgian Alison Van Uytvanck.

Nine years ago the American turned up here at the Australian Open looking seriously out of condition and ranked No 81 in the world, having not won a tournament for two years and having played only five tournaments in the preceding 16 months.

A shock defeat to Italy’s Roberta Vinci in the semi-finals of last year’s US Open denied Williams the chance of a calendar year Grand Slam after she had won the Australian Open and French Open as well as Wimbledon.

“Novak deserves like a little star next to his name right now because he’s been doing extremely well”, Federer said Saturday.

The Australian Open gets underway at Melbourne Park on January 18 with Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams looking to defend their titles.

World number one Serena Williams ruled out surgery to fix a persistent knee problem Saturday as she declared herself “130 percent fit” for the Australian Open. I mean, I didn’t have the match play that I’ve wanted to have. “I’ve been preparing well, taking some time to really work on certain things, get a good foundation”.

– Williams is the only player to have won more than two grand slam women’s singles titles since 2010 – triumphing 10 times in that period. No. 2 Simona Halep (Achilles tendon) and Maria Sharapova (left forearm) withdrew from the Brisbane International without playing a match, and No. 3 Garbine Muguruza retired during her first match with an injured foot.

“I might be rusty, make a few more unforced errors than I would like, but I’m ready to go”, Sharapova said.