TENNIS:CHAMPION NOVAK Djokovic made a triumphant return to the venue that kick-started his remarkable 2011 as the former joker of the courts emphatically demonstrated he was not prepared to cede his Australian Open crown without a fight.
Djokovic’s victory in Melbourne last year sparked a remarkable season in which he won three grand slam titles and finally overhauled Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer as the world number one.
Yesterday, in baking hot conditions similar to those that had tripped the 2008 champion up in his first Melbourne Park title defence, the Serb produced an emphatic 6-2 6-0 6-0 victory over Italian journeyman Paolo Lorenzi in 92 minutes.
“It took me a couple games to get into the right rhythm,” Djokovic, who entertained the fans with some flashes of brilliance including an audacious through the legs shot, said. “You know, it’s a bit difficult conditions. Today was I think around 35 degrees, so it took a bit of time to get used to the heat. I think it was really the hottest day since I’ve arrived here, so trying to get used to that. But I think I played well after the first set was finished.”
Djokovic’s fellow US Open champion, Australia’s Sam Stosur, wilted in the pressure cooker environment on Rod Laver Arena in front of local fans holding heightened expectations as she crashed to a 7-6 6-3 loss to Romania’s Sorana Cirstea.
“I really, really wanted to do well here and over the [Australian] summer,” sixth seed Stosur said of becoming the biggest casualty of the first round. “I did everything I could to try and give myself a good opportunity.
“It obviously didn’t happen (and) it’s not through lack of trying or not wanting it or anything like that. I mean, you can’t pick the times that you want to play well. That’s sport.”
Local fans, however, did have something to cheer about when Lleyton Hewitt rattled off six successive games and come back from a 5-1 fourth set deficit to beat Germany’s Cedrik-Marcel Stebe and advance to the second round.
Hewitt, a former world number one who now appears to approach matches as a man who has hired the court for four hours and is going to get his money’s worth, blew a two-set lead and failed to capitalise on Stebe requiring virtually constant treatment on his left calf muscle before he clinched victory in three hours, 58 minutes.
The Australian will now face 15th-seed Andy Roddick, who beat Dutchman Robin Haase 6-3 6-4 6-1, though the American said that he expected the match to go the distance, despite Hewitt now being ranked 181st in the world.
“I don’t pay much attention to it [rankings] when it comes to Lleyton. He knows how to win tennis matches,” Roddick said.
“He’s a fighter. I have as much respect for him as I do for anybody in the game, how he goes about his business, how he competes, how professional he is. I’ve won the most recent meetings, but I think out of the six that I’ve won, four or five have gone the distance to the last set. We always have a bit of a war. I probably don’t see it being any different.”
Women’s title contenders Petra Kvitova and Maria Sharapova both had lopsided victories in the afternoon heat. World number two Kvitova and fourth seed Sharapova were unruffled by the hot conditions with Kvitova’s ruthlessly efficient 6-2 6-0 victory over Vera Dushevina taking a tick over one hour.
Sharapova was as merciless on Hisense Arena, beating Argentina’s Gisela Dulko 6-0 6-1 in 58 minutes. Sharapova had looked like inflicting the third “double bagel” (6-0 6-0 win) of the tournament in two years before Dulko broke her serve in the third game of the second set, to a massive cheer and sustained applause.
Two other title favourites, however, had to shake off early rust before running out comfortable winners. Five-times champion Serena Williams, who did not start her match until 11.30pm local time after Hewitt’s marathon match, struggled to get going against Tamira Paszek of Austria before she won 6-3 6-2 in 79 minutes.
British fourth seed Andy Murray lost the first set of his match to American teenager Ryan Harrison. The 2010 and 2011 runner-up at Melbourne Park, however, got accustomed to Harrison’s style of play by the second set and was untroubled thereafter in a 4-6 6-3 6-4 6-2.
