Nadal Comeback from Long Layoff Reaches Brisbane Quarterfinals

Tennis - French Open - Roland Garros, Paris, France - June 1, 2021 Spain's Rafael Nadal reacts during his first round match against Australia's Alexei Popyrin. Reuters
Tennis - French Open - Roland Garros, Paris, France - June 1, 2021 Spain's Rafael Nadal reacts during his first round match against Australia's Alexei Popyrin. Reuters
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Nadal Comeback from Long Layoff Reaches Brisbane Quarterfinals

Tennis - French Open - Roland Garros, Paris, France - June 1, 2021 Spain's Rafael Nadal reacts during his first round match against Australia's Alexei Popyrin. Reuters
Tennis - French Open - Roland Garros, Paris, France - June 1, 2021 Spain's Rafael Nadal reacts during his first round match against Australia's Alexei Popyrin. Reuters

Rafael Nadal's comeback from a year-long injury layoff reached the Brisbane International quarterfinals after dominating Jason Kubler 6-1, 6-2 on Thursday.

The 22-time major winner is playing on a wild card after his ranking slipped into the 600s as he recovered from hip surgery, and he's desperate for match time ahead of the Australian Open this month.

Nadal's first competitive match since January last year was a win on Tuesday against 2020 US. Open champion and former No. 3-ranked Dominic Thiem.

“It means a lot to me," Nadal said, The Associated Press reported.

"And two victories after a long time being outside of the professional tour is something that, yeah, makes me feel good and happy.”

He was more convincing against Kubler, a hometown favorite who is ranked 63rd after a career interrupted by multiple operations on his knees.

Nadal had 20 winners, including some ripping forehands, and eight unforced errors. He hit volleys and half-volleys and overheads. He scrambled to chase drop shots and covered the baseline without any visible signs of the injury.

The 37-year-old Spaniard lost only one point in his first three service games — a double-fault on the second point of the match. But he was also able to dig himself out of a hole by winning five straight points when he faced triple breakpoint while serving for the first set.

“I came on court trying to be aggressive with my shots from the the baseline and it worked very well,” Nadal said in an on-court TV interview. "It's been a very positive match for me, (and I ) have the chance to play again tomorrow."

The only blip for Nadal was a warning for a time violation for taking too long in a locker-room break between sets. He shrugged it off, saying it was so humid he needed to change his clothing. He promised he'd work on getting faster this year.

He'll play another Australian, Jordan Thompson, in the quarterfinals on Friday. Thompson got a walkover when fourth-seeded Ugo Humbert withdrew from their second-round match because of illness.

Victoria Azarenka is in familiar territory after reaching the quarterfinals in Brisbane, where she won her first WTA title in 2009 when the tournament was staged for the first time.

Azarenka beat Clara Burel of France 7-5, 6-2 to reach the quarterfinals for the fifth time in six trips to the key Australian Open tune-up event.

The two-time Australian Open champion — in 2012 and 2013 — will next face third-seeded Jelena Ostapenko, the 2017 French Open champion who beat big-serving three-time Brisbane International winner Karolina Pliskova 6-2, 4-6, 6-3.

Pliskova went into the match on a 10-match winning streak in Brisbane and was coming off a second-round win over another former No. 1, Naomi Osaka. But Pliskova was often on the back foot with Ostapenko hitting 50 winners.

Azarenka opened Day 5 on Pat Rafter Arena and quickly took a 4-1 lead before withstanding a comeback from the No. 56-ranked Burel. She took an early break in the second set and finished off in 92 minutes.

“I felt that whenever I needed, I was able to step up my game,” Azarenka said.

No. 2-seeded Elena Rybakina, the 2022 Wimbledon champion, also stepped up her game in a 6-1, 6-0 win over No. 13 Elise Mertens.

Top-seeded Aryna Sabalenka, the Australian Open champion, was playing a night match against Zhu Lin.

On the men's side, 2017 champion Grigor Dimitrov beat Daniel Altmaier 6-1, 6-2 with 20 winners and just five unforced errors. Dimitrov will next play Australian wild card Rinky Hijikata, who beat Czech qualifier Tomas Machac 5-7, 6-2, 7-6 (4).



Simona Halep Gets a Wild-card Entry for Australian Open Qualifying

FILE - Simona Halep, of Romania, returns a shot to Daria Snigur, of Ukraine, during the first round of the US Open tennis tournament, Aug. 29, 2022, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)
FILE - Simona Halep, of Romania, returns a shot to Daria Snigur, of Ukraine, during the first round of the US Open tennis tournament, Aug. 29, 2022, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)
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Simona Halep Gets a Wild-card Entry for Australian Open Qualifying

FILE - Simona Halep, of Romania, returns a shot to Daria Snigur, of Ukraine, during the first round of the US Open tennis tournament, Aug. 29, 2022, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)
FILE - Simona Halep, of Romania, returns a shot to Daria Snigur, of Ukraine, during the first round of the US Open tennis tournament, Aug. 29, 2022, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

Two-time Grand Slam champion Simona Halep, working her way back from a drug suspension, and Hall of Famer Lleyton Hewitt's 16-year-old son Cruz were among the players awarded wild-card entries Wednesday for Australian Open qualifying next month, The Associated Press reported.
Halep, a 33-year-old from Romania, was the runner-up at Melbourne Park in 2018 and won major titles at the French Open later that year and at Wimbledon in 2019. She has been ranked as high as No. 1 but is currently 877th and hasn't played at any Grand Slam tournament since 2022 after missing all tournaments for 1 1/2 years because of a doping case.
Cruz Hewitt is ranked outside the top 1,000. His father, who won two major trophies and reached No. 1 in the rankings, made his Australian Open debut in 1997 at age 15 via a qualifying wild card. Lleyton Hewitt retired in 2016, was elected to the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2021 and is currently Australia's Davis Cup captain.
Other men who got wild cards for the Jan. 6-9 qualifying event include 2023 Wimbledon quarterfinalist Chris Eubanks and former top 25 players Dan Evans and Bernard Tomic, while the women's group includes Paris Olympics doubles gold medalist and 2012 French Open singles runner-up Sara Errani and top 20 players Petra Martic and Ana Konjuh.
Main-draw action begins in Melbourne on Jan. 12.