Spanish. Victories by Pablo Carreño and Pedro Martínez;
defeat of Albert Ramos
Rafa Nadal. "I am suffering, I am in a complicated situation"
Frame. Men's first round
By the time the draw paired him with
Novak Djokovic
,
Jérémy Chardy
must have known that his path to the Australian Open would necessarily be short.
They had faced each other 13 times and the Serbian had won 13 times without giving up a single set.
On hard court, clay or grass.
In Australia, Roland Garros or Wimbledon.
A story without crooked lines.
Djokovic, eight times champion of the first 'big' of the course, took a comfortable first step towards the ninth crown.
6-3, 6-1 and 6-2 in an hour and a half of the game.
Australia is Djokovic's as much as Paris is
Nadal's
, and the Serbian soon made it clear, breaking Chardy's serve in the first game.
The Frenchman saved the next three break balls to force the 4-3, but the mirage lasted a sigh:
Nole
scored 5-3 in just 58 seconds and fell behind another six games in a row.
Not even when the Serbian slowed down, seeing the victory in his pocket, did the abyss seem to close.
In a one-sided match, there was at least room for a small tribute to the Rod Laver Arena crowd.
A fifth game of the third set that went to 18 points and 11 minutes, and that ended with the inevitable outcome: break and game for Djokovic, who is already looking towards the next round.
Frances Tiafoe
awaits him
, the young American who surprised him two years ago reaching the quarterfinals, where he fell to Rafa Nadal.
The one from Maryland, who has never faced
Nole
, comes after getting rid of Stefano Travaglia 7-6 (5), 6-2, 6-2.
Thiem and Zverev victories;
Andreescu's return
Domincic Thiem
, finalist last year, debuted with victory over Kazakh
Mikhail Kukushkin
7-6 (6), 6-2, 6-3 and will face German
Dominik Koepfer
.
More suffered
Alexander Zverev
, his victim in the two major achievements of 2020, Australia and the US Open.
The German started losing in an intense first set against
Marcos Girón
, but he rebuilt to win 6-7 (8), 7-6 (5), 6-3, 6-2.
His next date, with
Maxime Cressy
.
The 'Peque'
Schwartzman
beat the Swede Elias Ymer by 7-6 (3), 6-4, 2-6 and 6-2.
Premiere without great surprises either in the female box.
Naomi Osaka
, champion in 2019, got rid of Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova with the same authority (6-1, 6-2) with which
Serena Williams
beat Laura Siegemund (6-1, 6-1 in less than an hour of play) .
His next rivals will be Caroline García and Nina Stojanovic, respectively.
Simona Halep, world number two and semifinalist in 2020, beat Lizette Cabrera 6-2, 6-1 and is already waiting for another local tennis player, Ajla Tomljanovic.
The Romanian had been precisely Bianca Andreescu's last rival, 15 long months ago.
The Canadian, winner of the US Open in 2019, had to withdraw from that match of the WTA Finals due to a knee injury with which she began an ordeal from which she is only now beginning to emerge.
In her first return match, she edged out Mihaela Buzarnescu 6-2, 4-6, 6-3.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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See links of interest
2021 business calendar
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Girona - Leganés
Wolverhampton Wanderers - Leicester City
Milan - Crotone
Real Betis - Barcelona, live