Eugenie Bouchard provided relief from a deluge of bad injury news in the women’s game ahead of the Australian Open, as the Canadian won 6-2, 6-1 against Bethanie Mattek-Sands at the Hobart International on Monday.
The former No. 5 is on the comeback trail since sustaining a concussion when she fell in the dressing room during last year’s US Open, with the Shenzhen Open last week being her first tournament since.
Bouchard said before her first match in Hobart she had “zero expectations” for the tournament as she eases back into competitive tennis after the four-month layoff.
However she was impressive against American veteran Mattek-Sands, just as many leading Australian Open deal with injuries.
Daria Gavrilova, who teamed with Nick Kyrgios to win Australia’s first Hopman Cup title in Perth last week, became the latest player to withdraw from the Sydney International on Monday, due to an abdominal injury.
Defending champion and world No. 5 Petra Kvitova withdrew from the tournament on Sunday due to a stomach virus and was joined a few hours later by No. 2-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska, who cited a leg injury.
last week, the world’s four top-ranked women retired or withdrew from tournaments due to injuries: No. 1 Serena Williams (Hopman Cup/knee), second-ranked Halep (Brisbane/ankle), No. 3 Garbine Muguruza (Brisbane/foot) and fourth-ranked Maria Sharapova (Brisbane/forearm). The addition of Kvitova and Radwanska leaves the six top-ranked women all under injury clouds ahead of the Australian Open which starts Jan. 18.
Germany’s Angelique Kerber, ranked 10, won her first round match in Sydney, beating Ukraine’s Elona Svitolina 4-6, 6-0, 6-3, while former US Open champion Sam Stosur beat Roberta Vinci 4-6, 7-5, 7-5.
In the men’s draw, fifth-seeded Andreas Seppi beat Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin 6-4, 4-6, 6-2.
At the ASB Classic in Auckland, American Jack Sock took only 43 minutes to beat Victor Estrella Burgos 6-0, 6-4 to claim his place in the second round. Canada’s Vasek Pospisil ousted seventh-seed Ivo Karlovic 7-6 (4), 7-5.
Paes-Chardy bow out
Sydney: Indian tennis star leander Paes’ build-up to the Australian Open got off to a disappointing start after the veteran and his French partner Jeremy Chardy bowed out of the Sydney International following a straight-set loss in the men’s doubles opening round.
Paes and Chardy lost 4-6, 4-6 in an hour and eight minutes to Brazilian-Canadian third seeds Marcelo Melo and Daniel Nestor at the $404,780 event here on Monday.
Paes will start as the defending champion at the Australian Open next week alongwith Swiss Martina Hingis in the mixed doubles category and this defeat will be a dampener for his preparation for the prestigious event.