Alize Cornet blew up at the chair umpire and gave the official a furious spray after feeling like she was dudded at a crucial moment.
Daniil Medvedev continues his Australian Open charge today after overcoming Nick Kyrgios while former world No. 1 Simona Halep is also in action in the third round.
Aussie surprise packet Maddison Inglis will be hoping to keep her dream run alive against Kaia Kanepi while fellow local Alex De Minaur takes on Spain’s Pablo Andujar.
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Star blows up: ‘What is your problem with me?’
Alize Cornet blew up at the chair umpire when she was pinged for a time violation at a crucial moment in the second set of her match against Tamara Zidansek.
Zidansek won the opening set and while Cornet lined up to serve at 4-4 in the second, the umpire decided she’d taken too long as the Frenchwoman tried to adjust to the angle of the sun.
Cornet didn’t agree, saying she was easily in position quick enough to beat the 25-second shot clock. “This is insane,” she said, before asking: “What is your problem with me?”
Cornet then marched from the baseline to the chair and gave the umpire a piece of her mind.
“Don’t say anything to me, just listen,” she said as part of her rant.
Cornet recovered from that blow to win the second set 6-4.
Day six schedule (all times AEDT)
Rod Laver Arena
From 11am: Danielle Collins (27) vs Clara Tauson
Kaia Kanepi vs Maddison Inglis (WC)
Not before 2pm: Benoit Paire vs Stefanos Tsitsipas (4)
From 7pm: Pablo Andujar vs Alex De Minaur (32)
Sorana Cirstea vs Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 10
Margaret Court Arena
From 11am: Tamara Zidansek (29) vs Alize Cornet
Marketa Vondrousova (31) vs Aryna Sabalenka (2)
Not before 2pm: Botic Van De Zandschulp vs Daniil Medvedev (2)
From 7pm: Iga Swiatek (7) vs Daria Kasatkina (25)
Andrey Rublev (5) vs Marin Cilic (27)
John Cain Arena
Not before 12:30pm: Simona Halep (14) vs Danka Kovinic
Krejcikova/Siniakova (1) vs Adamczak/Han
Not before 5pm: Dan Evans (24) vs Felix Auger-Aliassime (9)
Teen sensation on a roll
Danish teenager Clara Tauson continued her hot streak by taking the first set 6-4 against 27th seed Danielle Collins before the American bounced back to win the second and send things to a decider.
World No. 39 Tauson beat Aussie Astra Sharma in round one then upset sixth seed Annett Kontaveit in straight sets in the second round.
Nadal thought he might never play again
Rafael Nadal said on Friday that his foot injury last year was so bad he thought he might never play tennis again.
The Spanish great is chasing a men’s record 21st Grand Slam at the Australian Open, where he steamed into the fourth round with a four-set victory over Russian 28th seed Karen Khachanov.
Speaking after his 6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 victory in a late-night match on Rod Laver Arena, the 35-year-old Spaniard laid bare the extent of the foot problem that ended his year on the tour in August.
Nadal suffers from Mueller-Weiss syndrome, a degenerative disease that causes a deformity of one of the bones in the central part of the foot.
“First of all, everybody around me, me included of course, but everybody around me had a lot of doubts,” he said, asked if towards the end of last year he feared he might not make it to Melbourne.
“Not (only) about Australian Open, no, but about coming back on the tour because the foot was bothering a lot of days.
“Of course, still today are doubts because the foot, as I said the other day, it is an injury we cannot fix… so we need to find a way that the pain is under control to play, to keep playing. That’s the goal.”
Nadal, who has seen the draw open up for him with the deportation of defending champion Novak Djokovic, dropped a set for the first time this week against Khachanov.
But he called it his best performance since returning to the tour at the start of the year.
Nadal will face unseeded Frenchman Adrian Mannarino in the last 16.
“It’s a very special week for me coming back from where I have been, every time I come back here to play is a very special thing,” Nadal told the crowd, a nod to his foot issue.
“I had my best match so far without a doubt since I came back.
“I went through some very tough times in the last year and a half, but nights like this mean everything to me, that’s a lot of energy in my pocket to keep going, keep fighting every single day.”
AFP
Fans fume at broadcast ‘shambles’
Tennis fans in the UK were fuming when broadcaster Eurosport cut away late in the third set of Naomi Osaka’s blockbuster clash against Amanda Anisimova.
Anisimova scored the biggest win of her career, beating the four-time major winner 4-6 6-3 6-6, but not everyone around the world could see the final stages of the gripping encounter.
Eurosport reportedly cut away from the clash at 5-5 in the third set to a skiing broadcast, sparking a furious reaction online as its other channel went to Rafael Nadal’s warm-up.
Tennis commentator Jose Morgado called it a “shambles” while sports reporter Ben Coley tweeted: “We give the BBC some stick but @Eurosport_UK just left Osaka at 5-5 in the third for some skiing.
“On the main channel we’re watching Nadal warm up. Surely we could join Nadal in 20 minutes? Madness. Absolute madness.”
Tennis writer Simon Cambers added: “Terrible decision by Eurosport to leave Osaka-Anisimova at 5-5 in the third. Fine, they’ve got skiing to go to — but on the other channel, they’re showing the start of Rafa instead. Just show the women. Mental.”
Day six preview
World No. 2 Daniil Medvedev will step up his march towards the Australian Open men’s title on Saturday while a resurgent Simona Halep eyes a place in the second week of the Grand Slam.
US Open champion Medvedev cemented his status as tournament favourite by overcoming the mercurial Nick Kyrgios in four sets in a raucous second-round encounter on Thursday.
Medvedev, the de facto top seed after Novak Djokovic was deported on the eve of the tournament, now faces a more conventional opponent in Dutch world No. 57 Botic van de Zandschulp for a place in the last 16.
But he will not take his opponent lightly in their third-round meeting. “Grand Slams are tough, there are going to be tough opponents,” said Medvedev. “Sometimes you lose early, sometimes you lose late, sometimes you win it. I just want to play really good.”
Former women’s number one Halep tumbled down the rankings after an injury-blighted 2021 but said she had given her best performance of the year in beating Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil 6-2, 6-0 in the second round.
“I played well and I felt very confident on court,” said 14th seed Halep, who now faces world number 98 Danka Kovinic, the conqueror of US Open champion Emma Raducanu.
“I felt great, everything. Was the best match.”
With Andy Murray and Raducanu out, the weight of British expectation now falls entirely on the shoulders of 24th seed Dan Evans.
The last Brit standing had an unexpected day off on Thursday when his French opponent Arthur Rinderknech pulled out with injury giving him a walkover into the third round.
Evans faces in-form ninth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime, who was part of Canada’s ATP Cup-winning team in Sydney earlier this month.
There is an intriguing clash between fifth seed Andrey Rublev of Russia and 2018 Melbourne Park finalist Marin Cilic of Croatia that has the potential to be a late-night classic on Margaret Court Arena.
Cilic pushed Roger Federer to five sets in the final four years ago and the big-serving 27th seed is capable of upsetting anyone.
Fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas is a potential semi-final opponent for Medvedev, but first he needs to get past seasoned Frenchman Benoit Paire on Rod Laver Arena.
Paire, the world number 56, is looking to equal his best at a Slam by reaching the fourth round at the Australian Open for the first time.
In the women’s event, second seed Aryna Sabalenka has been plagued by poor serving and dished up 19 double faults in scraping through her second-round match against China’s Wang Xiyu in three sets on Thursday.
A repeat could see her in trouble against 31st seed Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic, in the bottom half of a draw that has already seen the shock departure of third seed Garbine Muguruza and sixth seed Anett Kontaveit.
AFP