The 31-year-old has been on the cusp of breaking through - reaching No. We were, like, for 15 days apart.”Ĭornet’s biggest claim to fame was thrice beating a top-ranked Williams in 2014, including at Wimbledon. “It’s been a pretty stressful start of the year also with my team,” Muguruza said. She also lost in the first or second round of a major at least once in all 11 years of her career, including 10 times in 22 starts since her first Slam title. She won the 2016 French Open and 2017 Wimbledon, plus made two other major finals and twice beat a top-ranked Serena Williams at Roland Garros.

The Spaniard Muguruza continued her maddening Grand Slam career. Raducanu then changed coaches and went 2-4 in six matches between the U.S. Then she made the fourth round of Wimbledon and became the first qualifier to win a major at the U.S. At this time last year, she was still five months away from her first tour-level, main-draw match. Raducanu, at 19, is admittedly still learning the ropes of professional tennis at the highest level. 12 seed Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan retired from her second-round match with China’s Zhang Shuai due to a leg injury. Danish 19-year-old Clara Tauson, a former junior No. 6 Anett Kontaveit, who met for the WTA Finals title in November, lost the first matches on the two main show courts.įrench veteran Alizé Cornet dispatched Muguruza, a two-time major champion who was a set from winning the 2020 Australian Open, 6-3, 6-3. It’s quite deep, and it’s just in a very awkward position that it’s so difficult to tape.”Įarlier, No. “I have had blisters before but never this bad. “I have been struggling with blisters since I started playing in Australia because 21 days, no tennis, my hands got pretty soft. So I just left it all out on the court,” said the 19-year-old Raducanu, who had to isolate in December after testing positive for the coronavirus.

So I fought so hard just to come out to Australia and play here, and I didn’t want to go out like that. “Some people in my team didn’t want me to even go out there. Open champion, was among four of the top 17 women’s seeds to fall in the Australian Open second round on Thursday.ĭanka Kovinic, a Montenegrin ranked 98th, beat Raducanu 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 after the Brit got treatment for a blister on her right hand in the first set.

Australian open standings