Saturday Nov 16, 2024
Saturday Nov 16, 2024
Friday, 23 January 2015 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
The steely-eyed Serb, bidding for a record fifth title at Melbourne Park in the professional era, wrapped up the first set in 21 minutes and gave 88th-ranked Kuznetsov no chance in a one hour 24-minute training run on Rod Laver Arena.
Djokovic preserved his record of reaching the third round at Melbourne Park for a ninth consecutive year.
The top seed will play Japan’s Go Soeda or Spaniard Fernando Verdasco in the next round.
Defending champion Stanislas Wawrinka moved into the third round with a workmanlike victory over Romanian qualifier Marius Copil.
The 29-year-old Wawrinka, who appeared to have some trouble with his right elbow throughout the match as he iced it during the changeovers and only recorded two aces, took two hours, 16 minutes to beat the 24-year-old 7-6(4) 7-6(4) 6-3.
Copil, the lowest ranked player in the second round at 194 and playing in the main draw of a grand slam for the first time, got the Margaret Court crowd behind him by fighting for every point and not allowing the Swiss to run away with the game.
Wawrinka, who sealed the win when a backhand drive produced a forehand error from Copil, will now play Finland’s Jarkko Nieminen in the third round.
Elsewhere, US Open finalist Kei Nishikori was forced to dig himself out of a small hole when he lost the first set to Ivan Dodig, but once he got warmed up, and the temperatures continued to rise past 32 Celsius, the Croatian wilted.
Dodig, who withdrew with injury from all three of his grand slam appearances last year, had seized the early advantage against the world number five, but the Japanese broke in the final game of the second set and the momentum shifted.
In the women’s draw, Serena Williams weathered an early challenge from Russian Vera Zvonareva before the former world number two crumbled to lose 7-5 6-0.
On a hot day at Melbourne Park, Zvonareva broke Williams twice in the first set, but a forehand winner that would have given her a set point missed the line by a whisker and her American opponent broke back.
From there it was all one-way traffic as the top seed dominated and Zvonareva surrendered after an hour and 25 minutes by meekly pushing a forehand into the tram-lines.
Williams will next play Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina.
Serena’s victory came about 90 minutes after older sister Venus hammered American compatriot Lauren Davis 6-2 6-3.
Venus’s struggles with Sjogren’s syndrome, an auto-immune disease, have made every match she plays a lottery, but the 18th seed had little trouble accounting for Davis. Thirty-four year-old Venus was dumped from the first round last year but now finds herself on a seven-match winning streak after clinching the Auckland Open title in the lead-up.
Venus faces a tough third-round match against 33rd-ranked Camila Giorgi, a feisty Italian counter-puncher, who has broken into the top 50 with a bullet.
