Relieved Williams Reaches Australian Open Second Round

“Fortunately for me, I didn’t need to get directly involved in these particular situations”.

The BBC and BuzzFeed News said they had not named the players because without access to their phone, bank and computer records it was not possible to determine whether they took part in match-fixing.

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) – Maria Sharapova advanced to the third round of the Australian Open with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Aliaksandra Sasnovich, staying on course for a potential quarterfinal meeting with Serena Williams.

Federer beat Nikoloz Basilashvili of Georgia 6-2, 6-1, 6-2 on Monday and will face Alexandr Dolgopolov in the second round of the tournament.

The most dominant players in tennis entered the season’s first major after contrasting preparations, with Williams having to overcome a left knee problem that limited her court time and Djokovic warming up with a run to the title at Doha. “It was an hour and 43 minutes and I didn’t feel it at all”, she said.

Federer will next play Grigor Dimitrov, who has a style that has been compared with Federer’s, after the No. 27-seeded player beat Marco Trungelliti 6-3, 4-6, 6-2, 7-5.

“I played two previous tournaments and didn’t have the right results but I have strong belief in the way I want to play”. Williams, who just missed a calendar year Grand Slam last year by losing in the semifinals at the U.S. Open, plays Camila Giorgi of Italy, followed by Djokovic’s match against Chung Hyeon of South Korea. “Honestly it’s on a borderline, I would say”, he said. “Challenger level, those tournaments, maybe, maybe not”, he said.

“One of the reasons why tennis is a popular and clean sport is because it has always valued its integrity”.

Like Djokovic, Williams won three of the four major titles last season, but hadn’t finished a competitive match for months.

No. 12 Belinda Bencic defeated Alison Riske of Peters Township, 6-4, 6-3.

“When the draw came out and I saw who I was playing, I was just hoping to stay out there more than an hour”.

“Tennis hasn’t been really getting the piece of that cake, if you know what I mean”.

No. 24 Sloane Stephens, a semifinalist in 2013, lost 6-3, 6-3 to Chinese qualifier Wang Qiang, and exited along with No. 26 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and No. 27 Anna Karolina Schmiedlova. Konta then knocked out 14th-seeded Spaniard Garbine Muguruza 6-4 4-6 6-3 to make the quarter-finals.