Nadal outslugs rising star Zverev

Melbourne, January 21

Rafa Nadal held off a fierce challenge from one of the hottest prospects in the game when he outlasted German teenager Alexander Zverev 4-6 6-3 6-7(5) 6-3 6-2 to reach the last 16 of the Australian Open on Saturday.

The Spaniard, champion here in 2009, needed to be at his resilient best to come out on top after more than four hours of top quality shot-making and thrilling rallies which earned both players a huge ovation from the Rod Laver Arena crowd.

The 19-year-old Zverev showed in spades why many consider him a future Grand Slam champion but was just unable to stay with the uber-fit 30-year-old in a gripping deciding set.

“Everybody knows how good Alexander is, he’s the future of our sport and the present too,” said Nadal, who reached the fourth round for the 10th time in 12 appearances at Melbourne Park.

Nadal will next face Gael Monfils of France as he bids for a 15th Grand Slam title.

While Zverev’s performance reinforced his position in the vanguard of Gen Next, Nadal confirmed that he is healthy enough to take advantage of the early exit of Novak Djokovic from his half of the draw.

Zverev got off to the quicker start, grabbing a break in the opening game with a sumptuous backhand drop. He had a 20 kph advantage over Nadal on first serve but the German was unable to dominate in the second set the way he did in the first and a single break evened up the contest. The third set developed into a ding-dong battle with neither player able to snare a single break point and it was Zverev who edged the tiebreak with an angled winner, again off his backhand. Nadal grabbed the only break of the fourth set on Zverev’s first service game. — Reuters

Sania, Bops advance in mixed doubles

India’s Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna won their mixed doubles first round matches with their respective partners on Saturday.

Bopanna and his Canadian partner Gabriela Dabrowski battled past New Zealand’s Michael Venus and Slovakian Katarina Srebotnik 6-4, 6-7, 10-7 in a super tie-breaker.

Second seeded Sania and Croatian Ivan Dodig defeated Germany’s Laura Siegemund and Croatian Mate Pavic 7-5, 6-4.

Konta banks on family 

“When the organisation decided to stop funding me wasn’t in my benefit. It actually was very difficult. Everybody needs help. This is not a cheap sport,” Johanna Konta said after her win over Caroline Wozniacki. “My family, my support system, also my coaches at the time did a tremendous job in pulling together around me and making sure that our focus remained on the work and not on external situations...”