Rafael Nadal, Venus Williams Out in First Round of Australian Open

With five, Djokovic has already won more Australian titles than any other man in the Open era.

Great Britain’s Johanna Konta claimed the best win of her career after knocking out Venus Williams in the first round of the Australian Open on Tuesday.

Roger Federer has heard enough speculation about match-fixing in tennis.

“What (is there) to say?”

“The match is a tough lose for me obviously”. I’m like, ‘you know I didn’t play again after that?

“I’m more excited than nervous now”, Murray said of the pending arrival.

“My response is that there’s always going to be, especially these days when there is a lot of speculation – this is now the main story in tennis, in sports world – there’s going to be a lot of allegations”, Djokovic said. “I kind of needed that; there’ve been some things I worked on over the off-season, so it worked out for me today”. “That’s why I’ve been playing really well”, Nishikori said.

Andy Murray opened with a 6-1, 6-2, 6-3 win over Alexander Zverev, sand remains very much a round-by-round proposition at Melbourne Park, where he has lost the final four times.

Djokovic has said he didn’t believe any elite players were involved. It was Federer’s 299th match win at a major.

Now ranked 47th, 98 spots higher than this time last year, she upset current world number three Garbine Muguruza at the US Open last year en route to her first round of 16 at a major. “But I’m really excited about it”, said Sharapova, who said she has been interviewing her mother, father and grandparents and plans to include some journals she kept as a young girl. “I don’t know how, just, you know I was closing the eyes and everything was coming in and I keep doing it and I was doing well”.

“Okay, I haven’t played in a long time, but I have been playing for 30 years”.

Federer, who is trying to extend his record number of Grand Slam crowns to 18, then dismantled his 35th-ranked practice partner Alexandr Dolgopolov 6-3, 7-5, 6-1.

Up next for Williams is the unseeded but looming Daria Kasatkina; the 2014 junior French Open champion defeated the 2013 junior Australian Open and US Open champion Ana Konjuh in straight sets.

“It all started here”.

Williams withdrew from a warmup tournament because of inflammation in her left knee, so the win over Giorgi was her first completed match since her bid for a calendar-year Grand Slam ended in a semifinal loss at the U.S. Open. “I love it every time I come here”.

A day after Lleyton Hewitt’s final bow, one of Australia’s big new hopes, Nick Kyrgios, takes on sixth seed Tomas Berdych in what promises to be a raucous night session.

In only his second first-round loss at a major tournament, the oft-injured 29-year-old fought for four hours, 41 minutes before the inspired Verdasco won 7-6 (8/6), 4-6, 3-6, 7-6 (7/4), 6-2.

Nadal looked on course for success when he led 2-0 in the fifth set, but Verdasco rattled off six games in a row for a 7-6, 4-6, 3-6, 7-6, 6-2 win.