TENNIS: Ash Barty and Casey Dellacqua fought hard to subdue Jelena Jankovic and CoCo Vandeweghe in the first round of women’s doubles at Wimbledon on Thursday.
The Australian duo, seeded eighth, won 3-6 6-4 6-0 to take their place in the second round where they will face Chia-Jung Chuang and Misaki Doi.
“They started well and we just had to work our way through the match to get the result that we wanted,” Dellacqua told tennis.com.au.
“That’s way I like playing with Ash, because I can talk to her and I feel like I communicate with her and I know she does the same, so whatever the situation is, whether it’s a first round or a final, we can work our way through that.”
Added Barty: “I think in the first set, they both served great and put us on the back foot and we weren’t able to get into too many service games. But I think even the second, when it was close, we became more active and came in, and that’s what we do best, when we come into the net and use the volleys and the way we move around at the net together.
“I think that was probably the biggest difference – as soon as we could get in, it made a massive difference.”
Barty and Dellacqua, who together reached the Wimbledon doubles final in 2013, are again firming for another strong run at the All England Club.
After progressing to their fourth Grand Slam doubles final together at Roland Garros a month ago, the Aussies subsequently progressed to grasscourt finals in Birmingham and Eastbourne, lifting the trophy at the former.
“I think we should feel pretty confident in our game style that we can beat any team that we face,” Dellacqua said.
“We love the grass, so I think coming in having made a final and won a title gives us a lot of confidence and we just have to work our way through each match and take each one as it comes. That’s the first one ticked off, and work towards the next one.”
Two other Aussies also scored wins in doubles in the first round of tandem action on Thursday.
John Peers, who along with Henri Kontinen is the No.1 seed in men’s doubles, came away with a 2-6 6-2 7-5 6-1 victory over Italians Fabio Fognini and Andreas Seppi.
Sam Groth, partnering Sweded Robert Lindstedt, scored a 6-7(5) 6-2 6-2 6-3 win against Argentinian pairing Guillermo Duran and Andres Molteni.
With Thanasi Kokkinakis and Jordan Thompson, Monique Adamczak and Storm Sanders, and Matt Reid and John-Patrick Smith all scoring first-round wins in doubles on Wednesday, the results went some way to erasing the disappointment of Australia’s singles campaign, where eight of nine Aussies fell in the first round.
“Obviously it’s not the results that we wanted in singles from both the men’s and women’s side, but I think it shows the depth that we have that we do still have so many teams left in the doubles and that we really value doubles and put a big effort in,” Barty said.
“Other teams have had some good wins yesterday as well. All Aussies love being at Wimbledon. We love being in a Slam and we all want to be in a Slam as long as we can, no matter what event it is.
Singles
Australia’s Wimbledon singles campaign is over following a tough second-round loss for Arina Rodionova.
The qualifier let slip a 5-1 second-set lead in going down 6-4 7-6(4) to Kazakh wildcard Zarina Diyas in a rollercoaster one-hour and 50-minute encounter on Thursday.
The world No.166 was valiant in defeat in a match played in searing London heat.
“I did what I could and I don’t think I would change anything. My level of effort was 100 per cent,” Rodionova said.
“I probably wasn’t physically 100 per cent because I was really fatigued from previous two matches. But I was fighting for every point today and that’s really I can ask for.”
Rodionova’s emotions threatened to boil over as she engaged in a running battle with umpire Mariana Alves over line calls and her repeated complaints that the court was “too slippery”.
Diyas also complained about the slipperiness of the court; both women lost their footing several times on Court 14 throughout the match.
Rodionova missed two set points on Diyas’ serve before dropping her own serve twice to allow the Kazakh to level the set at 5-5.
But, out of nowhere, Australia’s improbable first-round saviour broke Diyas from 40-love to steal an opportunity to serve out the second set.
Alas, despite grittily fighting off four break points, Rodionova was unable to level the match.
But the 27-year-old fought desperately until the very end.
Exhausted in her comeback from injury, Diyas collapsed into Rodionova’s arms in a warm embrace at the net after finally putting the Australian away after winning the rally of the match.
Rodionova’s exit leaves Australia without a third-round representative in either the men’s or women’s singles draw for the first time since 2012.
Tennis Australia/AAP