\u201cWhat can I say? I like the sound of it. Centurion is pretty nice,\u201d he said after his 100th victory at the Australian Open.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always give my best whenever I\u2019m on the court. Obviously, history-making is a great motivation, and particularly in the last five-10 years of my career.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 2014 champion Wawrinka lived to fight another day with a gutsy four-set victory.<\/p>\n
The three-time major winner is playing his last season before retiring and gave his all to down Serbia\u2019s Laslo Djere 5-7, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (7\/4) in front of a crowd willing him to victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe passion is still intact. But I\u2019m not young anymore, so I need to be careful also,\u201d said the Swiss veteran, who made his Australian Open debut in 2006.<\/p>\n
Medvedev, runner-up in 2021, 2022 and 2024, warmed up for Melbourne with victory in Brisbane and ground to a 7-5, 6-2, 7-6 (7\/2) opening-round win over Dutchman Jesper de Jong.<\/p>\n
The famously feisty Russian said he was trying to be more \u201cpositive\u201d on court.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo far I\u2019m doing it well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Sixth seed Alex de Minaur, the big home hope, was also a straight-sets winner on another hot day where temperatures reached about 30C and record crowds of more than 100,000 faced long queues to get into Melbourne Park.<\/p>\n
The tournament is over, however, for seventh seed Felix Auger-Aliassime, who retired from his match with cramp.<\/p>\n
Auger-Aliassime won the opening set 6-3 against Nuno Borges, but then lost the next two before calling time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to be on the court competing with my opponent. I don\u2019t want to be just standing there like a punching bag,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The same fate befell tearful compatriot Marina Stakusic, who was taken off in a wheelchair when she cramped up against home player Priscilla Hon.<\/p>\n
In the women\u2019s draw, six-time major winner Swiatek was made to work unexpectedly hard against Chinese qualifier Yuan Yue.<\/p>\n
The Polish second seed, who will complete a career Grand Slam of all four majors if she breaks her Australian Open duck, eventually saw off her spirited opponent 7-6 (7\/5), 6-3.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was a bit rusty at the beginning,\u201d said Swiatek.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor sure many ups and downs, but overall I have some stuff to work on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gauff beat Uzbekistan\u2019s Kamilla Rakhimova 6-2, 6-3, but was also less than convincing at the start and struggled with her serve.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am only satisfied if I win, but I am proud of myself regardless of how I get on,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Her reward is a clash next with Venus Williams\u2019 conqueror Olga Danilovic.<\/p>\n
Like Swiatek, Gauff has yet to go past the last four in Melbourne.<\/p>\n
Gauff\u2019s fellow American, fourth seed Amanda Anisimova, began her quest for a third consecutive major final with a ruthless win over Switzerland\u2019s Simona Waltert, 6-3, 6-2.<\/p>\n
Sixth seed Jessica Pegula and eighth seed Mirra Andreeva also progressed.<\/p>\n
However, former champion Sofia Kenin crashed out and so did Alexandra Eala, despite manic support from Philippines fans.<\/p>\n
The 20-year-old Eala was in the main draw for the first time and even practice sessions were mobbed by large numbers of her compatriots.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this week definitely there were elements that were a bit overwhelming,\u201d she said of the support following a three-set loss to Alycia Parks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWhat can I say? I like the sound of it. Centurion is pretty nice,\u201d he said after his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":241441,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[141959,2851,806,1135,11164,46596,61892,21691,10808,141954,14045,29052,141958,10813,141956,700,123,2683,111,139,141953,69,90,5493,1974,141955,10814,213,141346,141957,2563,61,8982,6027,102,26756],"class_list":["post-241440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-25th","tag-also","tag-as","tag-australian","tag-began","tag-centurion","tag-coco","tag-contenders","tag-crown","tag-djokovic","tag-emphatic","tag-fellow","tag-gauff","tag-grand","tag-iga","tag-latest","tag-melbourne","tag-move","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-novak","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-open","tag-record","tag-romps","tag-slam","tag-sports","tag-straightsets","tag-swiatek","tag-title","tag-to","tag-victory","tag-win","tag-with","tag-won"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}