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January 19, 2018

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Federer through but Wawrinka, Muguruza depart

Roger Federer escaped the worst of the Melbourne heatwave but had to knuckle down to avoid getting burnt by feisty German Jan-Lennard Struff as he won 6-4, 6-4, 7-6(4) to reach the third round of the Australian Open yesterday.

Federer glided through the opening two sets but was dragged into a scrap in the third as the 55th-ranked Struff went for broke. The 36-year-old was momentarily knocked out of his stride when he slipped 1-3 down but broke back to take the set into a tiebreak on a steamy night. Federer will meet French 29th seed Richard Gasquet for a place in the last 16.

Stan Wawrinka may have imagined his knee was good enough, but it clearly wasn’t as he made his earliest exit in a decade — a 6-2, 6-1, 6-4 loss in the second round to No. 97-ranked Tennys Sandgren.

After a searing day at Melbourne Park when the temperature hit 40 Celsius, No. 9 Wawrinka was one of three seeded players to fall in the men’s draw. Wimbledon champion and No. 3-ranked Garbine Muguruza was one of five seeded players to lose in the women’s side on Day 4.

Six-time champion Novak Djokovic survived the round, but complained of the brutal heat in a four-set win over an ailing Gael Monfils that extended his record to 15-0 in their career head-to-heads. Djokovic is playing his first tournament since Wimbledon, and has remodeled his serve to take some load of his injured right elbow.

Muguruza struggled with her fitness in the build up to the Australian Open, retiring from a game at the Brisbane International because of cramping, and withdrawing ahead of the Sydney International quarterfinals because of a thigh problem.

Blisters from the hot court surface didn’t help her in a 7-6 (1), 6-4 loss to No. 88-ranked Hsieh Su-wei, who has been No. 1 in doubles but had a career-high ranking of 23rd in singles.

That left only Maria Sharapova, Aneglique Kerber and French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko as grand slam winners in the women’s draw.

Sharapova and Kerber meet in the third round.

Sharapova, the 2008 Australian Open winner, beat No. 14-seeded Anastasija Sevastova 6-1, 7-6 (4) to avenge a fourth-round loss to her in last year’s US Open.

Kerber, the 2016 champion, had a 6-4, 6-1 win over Donna Vekic. Top-ranked Simona Halep, a two-time French Open finalist, held off 2014 Wimbledon finalist Eugenie Bouchard 6-2, 6-2.




 

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