Australian Open Second Service: Third round target for Raducanu; Muguruza concern for Peng Shuai
Looking back on the big news in our exclusive ‘Australian Open Second Service’, a former Slam champion offers a realistic target for Emma Raducanu’s Australian Open and Garbine Muguruza offers a slice of reality over the continued absence of Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai
Firstly, Justine Henin has predicted that winning just two matches in her first Australian Open would be a decent return for reigning US Open champion Emma Raducanu.
Speaking to Reuters, 2004 Australian Open victor Henin said âif she was to win two matches at the Australian Open [reaching the third round] it would be very good for her.
âIf she gets too caught up in the expectations of the people then it will be a very difficult time for a long time so she needs the right people around her.
âIt is more complicated for her ⌠this happened very quickly for Emma. But I was very impressed how she played at the US Open. It was fresh. We needed that, a charismatic girl playing good tennis and dealing with the situation.
âWhatâs important is that she and her entourage keeps her feet on the ground. She still needs to develop and development takes hard work and thatâs where she has to go right now.
âWinning the US Open was best and the worst that could have happened to her I would say.â
Read Henin’s full article here
In other news, Garbine Muguruza has branded China âa complicated country to deal withâ and is concerned Peng Shuai may never be able to âtalk freelyâ or provide âher real truth.â
Peng Shuai went missing for a number of weeks last year after speaking out about alleged sexual abuse she received from a Chinese sports official. Since then Chinese media have published snippets of video featuring Shuai but the player seemed somewhat reluctant to talk about her situation in the footage which has only added to the concerns of the global tennis community.
Muguruza said âare we going to know something about this? I donât know, I think itâs (China) a complicated country to deal with. Also the way they communicate, culturally.
âItâs a little bit not moving forward, I feel. Itâs just there since months and months.
Read more about Muguruza’s concerns here
The biggest topic of the week has now started to ‘tire’ for Rafa Nadal who wants people to understand that no one player is bigger than the game.
Nadal was asked again about the deportation of Novak Djokovic from Australia just a day before he was due to play his first round of the 2022 Australian Open when the Spanish legend said,
âI think the situation has gone too far. Honestly Iâm a little bit tired of the situation because I just believe that itâs important to talk about our sport, about tennis.
âThere is no player in history whoâs more important than an event.
Meanwhile, in more positive news for the global game, the announcement of a ‘fly on wall’ style documentary from Netflix that will follow the world’s top tennis players for a full year has received positive support from Daniil Medvedev and others.
Medvedev, Alexander Zverev and Stefanos Tsitsipas are all excited to see the new Netflix tennis documentary series and feel it will benefit tennis by introducing the sport to a younger audience.
Medvedev said âI liked Formula One before watching it, so itâs not like I watched it and now Iâm a Formula One fan.
âItâs really cool. We can never know how itâs going to work out in tennis. We can only know after the first season is out. But I think itâs exciting.
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