Tag: Goffin

Marie Bouzkova has survived a gruelling first outing of the new season against heavy-hitting Australian wildcard Talia Gibson at the Brisbane International.

One of seven Czechs in the top 50, Bouzkova returned to the Queensland capital for the first time since 2020 and required three hours to hold off the 20-year-old world No.140 7-6(5) 3-6 6-3.

“It was incredibly tough. The last game was super long and obviously so much credit to Talia, she played so well,” the world No.44 said.

“She’s so young, so we can see that she has a bright future ahead of her so I’m happy for Australian tennis and for myself, I’m really happy to pull this one through … Honestly, [I was] just grinding every ball because she has so much power, so I was kind of behind a lot of the rallies.

“I think I served well, a lot of the key moments and obviously the last game it was about my return as well.”

Bouzkova recovered from a 0-4 opening-set deficit and stood her ground to break the West Australian in a 15-minute final game to set a second-round meeting against another powerful ball-striker, seventh seed Jelena Ostapenko.

“It almost felt like today was kind of preparation for that match because she has so much power as well and we haven’t played for some years, so we’ll see how it goes,” she said.

Vukic glides past Goffin, Joint books clash against former No.1 Azarenka

Australian wildcard Aleksandar Vukic closed out the night session with a convincing victory over former world No.7 David Goffin.

In a first-time meeting between the pair, the world No.68 prevailed 6-2 6-3 to set a second-round clash against either reigning champion Grigor Dimitrov or qualifier Yannick Hanfmann.

“I think I definitely served good when I needed to. There were patches where I wasn’t making enough and getting into slight trouble on my serve and then when I needed to I served well … I thought my performance was very good,” Vukic said.

“It was my first year playing day in, day out at this level, a lot of ups and downs but really very confident going into the new season.”

Earlier, teenage wildcard Maya Joint set a showdown with former world No.1 Victoria Azarenka in her Brisbane International debut after claiming an all-Australian stoush against Maddison Inglis on Sunday.

In only her fourth WTA-level match, the 18-year-old played with the fearlessness of youth when she jumped to 5-0 early and sustained her advantage through a more evenly contested second set for a 6-3 6-4 victory over the 154^th-ranked Inglis at Pat Rafter Arena.

18-year-old Maya Joint defeats compatriot Maddison Inglis 6-3 6-4 to kickstart her #BrisbaneTennis campaign.

The young Aussie will take on two-time Brisbane champion Victoria Azarenka in the second round! pic.twitter.com/VAx6TvPT8q

— Brisbane International (@BrisbaneTennis) December 29, 2024

“I train here, so it’s super special to be able to play a match in front of this amazing crowd,” Joint said. “It’s really important to start the season off well and I can’t think of a better place to do it than here.

“I’m super excited to just play a lot of firsts – first main draw here, first main draw at the Australian Open.”

Australia’s fastest-rising player over the past year, Joint climbed a staggering 655 places to end inside the top 120 following a season that included two ITF titles, a WTA 125 final and a win over Laura Siegemund to reach the second round at the US Open.

The teenager vowed to learn from a defeat to world No.21 Madison Keys at Flushing Meadows in her next match against two-time former champion Azarenka.

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“I’m really excited to play her. Yeah, I’ll think back to my Madison Keys match. That was a great experience. I hope I can play well again,” Joint said.

“There was a lot of things that I saw that I needed to improve in my own game to be competitive with those sorts of players … I’m glad I got a good win under my belt. I’ll take confidence from that. She hasn’t played a match yet this week, so we’ll see how it goes.”

In final-round men’s singles qualifying, German Yannik Hanfmann and 19-year-old American Nishesh Basavareddy ended the hopes of two former top-10 French players to book their main draw berths.

Hanfmann halted the 38-year-old Gasquet’s final Brisbane appearance 7-6(4) 6-3, while Basavareddy posted a 6-4 6-4 result over Lucas Pouille.

A third Frenchman, Benjamin Bonzi, was more fortunate after Bulgarian Adrian Andreev retired injured in just the fifth game, while two Australians, Tristan Schoolkate and Li Tu, fell short against Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Kukushkin and Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka, respectively.  Argentine Federico Agustin Gomez advanced over third seed Dusan Lajovic 6-1 7-6(4).

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