Williams, Djokovic advance at Aussie Open

Former No.1-ranked Caroline Wozniacki lost 1-6, 7-6 (3), 6-4 to Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan, continuing a downward spiral at Melbourne Park that has resulted in her exiting one round earlier each year since she reached the 2011 semifinals.

Meanwhile, fellow reigning champion from the men’s draw Novak Djokovic eased past Chung Hyeon in straight sets to kick off his quest for a record-equalling sixth Australian Open title on Monday.

Williams appeared to show no soreness from recent inflammation in her left knee.

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

Despite her lack of match practice, a focused Williams quickly got in the groove and carved out a decisive break with some powerful groundstrokes to grab a 2-1 advantage.

The two-time Wimbledon champion, who lost to the Thai in the first round in 2014, was playing her first match of the year after a stomach virus forced her to pull out of two warm-up events.

Against Konta, however, she struggled to connect with her first serve and couldn’t match the Australian-born Konta’s power from the baseline. I didn’t sleep well actually.

“Of course, there were some long rallies, long exchanges that got both of us a little bit short on air”.

The 24th seed, Sloane Stephens, who beat Serena Williams in the 2013 Australian Open quarter-finals, went out 6-3 6-3 to Chinese qualifier Wang Qiang.

Djokovic once had a reputation for quitting matches mid-way due to a variety of ailments, including at the 2009 Australian Open when he retired against Andy Roddick citing cramps, fatigue and dizziness, but definitely not any more. All of them were allowed to continue competing.

The corrupt gamblers are said to have made hundreds of thousands of pounds placing bets on scores of matches.

The world No 1, who had spent four months away from the game and barely swung a racquet since the US Open last September, faced the highest-ranked unseeded player at a sweltering Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne. Also advancing were No. 10 Carla Suarez Navarro, No. 12 Belinda Bencic, No. 13. Dominic Thiem and No. 26 Guillermo Garcia-Lopez. The Briton won 6-4 6-2 in Rod Laver Arena.

Now 18th in the world, Wozniacki was beaten 1-6 7-6 6-4 by a player 58 places below her in the rankings.

Chung grabbed his only service break in the opening set, but the Serb top seed powered through.

It solidifies her position as Britain’s number one and, although coming against an out-of-sorts Williams, the win was built on a mixture of devastating groundstrokes and impressive defence.

“Obviously there are nerves, and also the nerves of the many thousand people around you, which is impossible not to feel either”, Konta said.

If the game’s best player is openly recounting such an example, how can the ATP and WTA Tours deny match-fixing being a problem?