Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 13, 2025, Winnipeg, Manitoba C4 ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM M ELBOURNE, Australia — It was worth the wait for Canadian Leylah Fernandez. Fernandez defeated Ukraine’s Yuli- ia Starodubtseva 7-5, 6-4 in her first- round women’s singles match Sunday at the Australian Open. The contest was interrupted by a rain delay Satur- day with Fernandez leading 5-3 in the opening set. The 30th-seeded Fernandez, of Montreal, faces Spain’s Cristina Buc- sa in second-round action Tuesday. Fernandez captured the first-round contest despite registering only two aces — Starodubtseva had six — and committing six double faults, two more than her opponent. But the Ca- nadian did earn five breaks on 10 at- tempts while the Ukrainian converted on three-of-11 chances. Canada’s Rebecca Marino will play her first-round women’s singles match today against Britain’s Kaite Boulter. Later, Fernandez will play wom- en’s doubles with Nadiia Kichenok of Ukraine. The pair begin their tourna- ment against wild cards Talia Gibson and Maya Joint, both of Australia. Ottawa’s Gabriela Dabrowski is back with partner Erin Routliffe of New Zealand, and the No. 2-seeded duo will face Americans Danielle Col- lins and Desirae Krawczyk to start. Meanwhile, Coco Gauff had a little difficulty adjusting to the sun at one end of Rod Laver Arena and dropped an early service game but quickly settled into a rhythm to start her Aus- tralian Open a 6-3, 6-3 win today over 2020 champion Sofia Kenin. Third-seeded Gauff won the title at the WTA Finals last November and started this season by helping the U.S. to victory at the United Cup last week, a run that gives her a chance to move atop the rankings. The 2023 U.S. Open champion is wearing a Marvel-inspired bodysuit and skirt at Melbourne Park and she’s radiating confidence and calm. “I knew going in it was going to be difficult, but you know I’m happy with how I played,” she said of the 1-hour, 20-minute win over Kenin, who at No. 81 is a much tougher oppo- nent than her ranking suggests. “I mean (I) could serve better, but like on that side I was struggling to see the ball,” Guaff said, pointing to one baseline on the main show court that was bathed in sun. “So I’m just happy that I was able to manage through that.” Another 20-year-old American, Alex Michelsen, produced the biggest win of his young career with a 7-5, 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 first-round upset of 2023 Australian runner-up Stefanos Tsitsipas. Michelsen’s three booming service returns in the ninth game of the fourth set helped him earn a vital break against the 11th-seeded Tsitsip- as and, after shaking off jitters on his own serve, he closed out for his first ever victory over a player ranked in the top 20. Gauff went into her opening round on a streak of winning 33 matches against players ranked outside the Top 50, dating to a loss to Kenin at Wimbledon 2023. It was tough going early, with Gauff converting an early break before Kenin got back on serve at 2-2, hitting deep ground strokes and getting good bounce off the hard court. But Gauff, who had five aces and four double-faults in her first two ser- vice games, lifted her tempo, started taking the ball earlier and won four of the next five games. She finished the match with 12 aces and nine double-faults, and saved seven of the eight breakpoints she faced. She also had 28 winners, including two rifling backhands on key points in the second set, and 13 unforced errors. The draw presented another tough trip to Australia for Kenin. It was the third straight year Kenin faced a Grand Slam champion in the first round in Australia, and her fourth consecutive first-round exit here. Guaff will next play Jodie Burrage of Britain. Also advancing from early matches were No. 12 Diana Shnaider, No. 23 Magdalena Frech and No. 25 Liudmila Samsonova. After a stop-start Day 1 on Sunday, including more than six hours of rain, today’s packed program also includes matches for 10-time Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic, defending champion Jannik Sinner, Carlos Al- caraz, and women’s No. 2 Iga Swiatek. — The Canadian Press and The Associated Press SPORTS MONDAY, JANUARY 13, 2025 ASANKA BRENDON RATNAYAKE / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Leylah Fernandez defeated Ukraine’s Yuliia Starodubtseva 7-5, 6-4 in the first round of the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne. Fernandez wins opener at Australian Open Advances in straight sets after rain delay ASANKA BRENDON RATNAYAKE / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Coco Gauff plays a backhand return to Sofia Kenin during their first round match. Shapovalov sticking with aggressive style under new coach MELBOURNE, Australia — Canadian tennis star Denis Shapovalov knows what pundits and fans think he needs to do to find success: put the ball in the court more often. But the current world No. 58 believes his aggressive shotmaking is what sets his game apart. “I put a lot of pressure on opponents. I like to take time away from them and really try to make them feel they don’t have a lot of room to breathe. That’s the kind of player I am,” Shapovalov said ahead of the Australian Open, which began Sunday in Melbourne. “But there have been countless guys that have tried to tell me to play safer, and this and that. It’s just that it takes away from my game. “When I was top 10, I was playing very aggressively, and I was just mak- ing a lot of shots. I was staying patient, but I was playing aggressive. That’s the brand of tennis that I need to try to keep playing.” Shapovalov began his Australian Open today against the steady, consis- tent Spanish veteran Roberto Bautista Agut. The 25-year-old from Richmond Hill, Ont., defeated Bautista Agut twice on quick hard courts in 2024. Shapovalov is among a strong con- tingent of Canadians at the first Grand Slam of the season. Montreal’s Félix Auger-Aliassime is in on a high after winning the Adelaide International on Saturday. He comes in as the No. 29 seed and will take on Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff in the first round. Gabriel Diallo, also of Montreal, will face Italy’s Luca Nardi. Vasek Pospisil of Vernon, B.C., will team up with Australia’s Jordan Thompson for men’s doubles. They come in as wild cards and will face France’s Greoire Jacq and Orlando Luz of Brazil in the first round. Auger-Aliassime beat American Se- bastian Korda 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 in the final in Adelaide. The 24-year-old used his big serve to capture the victory, firing 10 aces and winning 75 per cent of his service points across the match. Both players struggled with break points, with No. 2 seed Korda convert- ing just 1 of 5 and Auger-Aliassime going 3 for 10. The win capped a solid tournament where the world No. 29 beat American Taylor Fritz in round-robin action be- fore topping France’s Arthur Cazaux, Marco Giron of the United States and Adelaide’s top seed, American Tommy Paul. Winning the Australian Open tune- up tournament marks the sixth ATP singles title of Auger-Aliassime’s career and his first on outdoor hard courts. Shapovalov heads into the Australian Open with a new coach — 40-year-old Serb Janko Tipsarevic. He’s the latest in a long line of coach- es to work with the feisty Canadian, including countryman Peter Polansky, former Davis Cup captain Martin Laurendeau (now coaching Diallo), Russian Mikhail Youzhny, Brit Jamie Delgado, Spaniard Javier Piles, and American Matt Daly (now coaching WTA star Coco Gauff). Tipsarevic reached No. 8 as a player and won four ATP Tour titles before retiring at the end of 2019. He began working with Shapovalov in Dubai in December following a one- week trial run at an ATP tournament in Basel, Switzerland last October. The new coach isn’t trying to elimi- nate aggression from his new charge’s playing style. “He obviously likes my game a lot. He thinks I need to stay aggressive and keep playing the way I play,” Shapovalov said. “Then, obviously, we’re trying to work on a little adjust- ments here and there — whether it’s with the footwork, whether it’s with the shot selection to go for the right shots. But he wants me to keep my identity. So I think that’s why so far we’ve had a great start together,.” After an injury-condensed 2023 season where he went 13-13, last year marked a bounceback for Shapovalov. He started dipped as low as No. 140 in the rankings last July, only to rally and capture a title at a tournament in Belgrade in November. “The tennis just kept getting better and better as the year went on,” Shapovalov said. “I felt like I was due a good week, or a good breakthrough. Obviously, you never know when it comes. It came the last week of the year for me, so I’m very happy about that.” His 2025 campaign got off to a tough start in Hong Kong, where the Cana- dian came down with a virus before falling to Japan’s Kei Nishikori in the round of 32. “I was stuck in my room, fever, shaking, and did everything I could to try to get out on the court that week,” Shapovalov said, noting a few other players were felled by the same virus. “I felt a little bit better in Adelaide (this week), and I’m feeling better every day as I go on.” As he looks to climb back up the rankings, Shapovalov will be striving for consistency — and playing his own game, no matter what others may say. “It’s easy for it to look like I’m tanking or just throwing matches away when things aren’t going my way because I still go for it,” he said. “It might look bad from the outside but ultimately, that’s how I win and how I lose matches. I play good tennis, and when I play my brand of tennis, it’s tough to play against me.” — The Canadian Press STEPHANIE MYLES MANU FERNANDEZ / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILES Denis Shapovalov of Richmond Hill, Ont., is ranked No. 58 in the world. MATT TURNER / AAP IMAGE Félix Auger-Aliassime beat Sebastian Korda in the Adelaide International final on Saturday. ;