On day 2 of Australian Open, 42-year-old Kimiko Date-Krumm (S-FIT, PTGSPN) won the memorial victory against No.12 seed Nadia Petrova as the oldest woman player in the tournament history. While such a veteran achieved her best, YONEX young players showed impressive play to win their openers.
For 16-year-old Donna Vekic (VCORE Xi 100), it’s the first challenge to compete in the main draw of the Grand Slam tournament. She faced Andrea Hlavackova (RQiS 2 Tour, PTGP125) yesterday, and took the initiative especially in her service games. Donna gave the opponent only 2 break chances while she made 8 times. With 5 breaks throughout the match, the teenager achieved the first win at the biggest tournament by 6-1 6-2.
In the men’s singles, Lithuanian hope Ricardas Berankis (EZONE Xi 98, PTGP125) had his second entry to the main draw of Australian Open since 2011. He played against Sergiy Stakhovsky in the first round, and showed spirited performance to win. Attacking with his EZONE Xi 98 racquet, Ricardas made 13 chances to break and achieved 3 times. Also he kept all his service games in the match, and defeated the opponent in straight sets by 6-2 7-6(4) 7-5.
For generating stronger spin, YONEX players have selected PolyTour SPIN. Sabine Lisicki (VCORE Tour 97) has also started playing with the blue string, and she gave us her impression for it.
“I get more power and control with this new string. Even after the bounce, my shots never lose spin. When I’m on defense, I feel I can hit more stable shots than before which might annoy the opponents.”
Tournament Results [Day 3]
Men’s Singles [2nd Round]
[15]Stanislas Wawrinka (VCORE Tour 97)(SUI) def. Tobias Kamke (GER) 6-3 7-6(4) Ret.
Women’s Singles [2nd Round]
[5]Angelique Kerber (VCORE Xi 100)(GER) def. Lucie Hradecka (CZE) 6-3 6-1
[13]Ana Ivanovic (EZONE Xi 98)(SRB) def. Yung-Jan Chan (TPE) 7-5 1-6 6-4
Zheng Jie (EZONE Xi 98, PTGSPN)(CHN) def. [9]Samantha Stosur (AUS) 6-4 1-6 7-5