Venus Williams suffers shock upset

Serbian world number one Novak Djokovic eased past Chung Hyeon in straight sets to kick off his quest for a record-equalling sixth Australian Open title on Monday.

The trouble-free performance was a boost for Sharapova whose latter half of 2015 was wrecked by injuries, first to her right leg which forced her to miss the US Open.

It was the eighth time she has lost in the first round of a Grand Slam tournament and the third in Australia, where she reached the quarterfinals in her first appearance in 1998 and lost the final to her youngest sister, Serena, in 2003. Djokovic, who had two wisdom teeth removed after the Madrid Masters earlier that month, said after the loss to Santoro that he was not fully fit because he was still taking medication. “The higher it goes, the more surprised I would be, no doubt about it”.

Williams had won their only previous match at the Wuhan Open in China last October – but the Brit had served for the match in the third set.

“I think it would be silly to look at Venus’ age and somehow consider that as a reflection of her level”, said the 24-year-old.

“To win against Rafa here coming from two sets down is unbelievable”, the 32-year-old, No. 45-ranked Verdasco said. Sharapova, who plays No. 56 Nao Hibino of Japan – they’ve never played each other – is just the opposite – “ultimately you know all the players that are competing here”. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose.

Konta’s copybook was blotted as Williams put up some resistance to break when her opponent was serving for the match, but as with the first set Konta came good at the second attempt.

Nick Kyrgios defeated Pablo Carreno-Busta 6-2 7-5 6-2.

After beating Halep, Zhang burst into tears when asked about breaking the drought.

“I think I played unbelievable in the final set from that early break and I started hitting winners”, said the 45th-ranked Verdasco. “To win against a top-two player, I’m so happy, so excited”.

Johanna Konta caused a huge upset in the Australian Open when she dumped Venus Williams in the first round by winning 6-4, 6-2.

The 21-time major victor said there was no hint of match-fixing on the women’s tour.

The 14-time Grand Slam champion, just three behind all-time leader Roger Federer 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.

“I hope to keep it up as long as I choose to play tennis”, he said.

“And while the BBC and BuzzFeed reports mainly refer to events from about 10 years ago, we will investigate any new information, and we always do”.

The hours before the tournament began were overshadowed by reports alleging a number of players were suspected of being involved in match-fixing but had been allowed to continue playing. No players were identified.