Venus Williams fined for media snub after Johanna Konta defeat

Venus Williams of the United States hits a forehand return to Johanna Konta of Britain during their first round match at the Australian Open tennis championships in Melbourne, Australia, Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016.

Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei may be a wily veteran with a deep bag of tricks, but her unusual array of two-handed shots and changes of pace were little match for the power of world No. 1 Serena Williams at the first Grand Slam event of the year on Wednesday.

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

Among the other men advancing were No. 8 David Ferrer, No. 10 John Isner, No. 13 Milos Raonic, No. 18 Feliciano Lopez and 34-year-old two-time major victor Lleyton Hewitt, playing his 20th and last Australian Open.

Certainly when they labour on your last defeat, as an Italian journalist did – apologetically – in quizzing Williams about Roberta Vinci, her conqueror in the US Open semi-finals last September, after which the 21-times grand slam champion took four months off.

Konta will need to be patient and construct her chances – she will not be able to overpower Williams, but she can wear her down. He has said he’ll leave immediately, regardless of the stage of the tournament, if his wife, Kim, goes into labor in London with their first child.

Sharapova was finished in 71 minutes Wednesday on Rod Laver Arena, the first match completed on day three after light rain caused delays on outside courts.

“It’s always great support from Michael”.

But the 24-year-old Konta simply wore down the 35-year-old Williams in Australia, creating doubt as to how much longer the elder Williams wants to continue playing with her prime continuing to disappear from her rear-view mirror.

World number one Serena Williams dispelled concerns she was struggling with a knee injury as she dug deep to beat Camila Giorgi Monday in a testing start to her Australian Open campaign. “He’s a very nice guy outside of the court – on the court he’s very tough”.

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. The victor was so emotional she was unable to manage a post-match interview, with her coach also in floods of tears.

Tournament officials said play would not start on those courts until at least 11:30 a.m. Ball boys and girls were sponging the courts off.

Raonic, who opened the season with victory over Roger Federer in the Brisbane final, won 6-1 6-4 6-4 to set up a clash with either Malek Jaziri from Tunisia or Spaniard Tommy Robredo.

She now faces Russian Daria Kasatkina, with a potential quarter-final clash against arch-rival Sharapova awaiting.