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It certainly started differently, with the top-ranked German losing to sixth-seeded Elina Svitolina 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 in the Brisbane International quarterfinals on Thursday.

Kerber reached the final here last year and fine-tuned to precision for the Australian Open, where she beat Serena Williams to claim her first Grand Slam title. She went on to reach the finals at Wimbledon and the Olympics before collecting a second major title by winning the U.S. Open. She overhauled Williams for the top ranking and finished the year at No. 1.

After a first-round bye, Kerber struggled with her serve and had nine double-faults in a three-set win over Australian wild-card entry Ash Barty in the second round. Against the No. 14-ranked Svitolina, the German left-hander cut her double-faults down to five, and had a break in the third set after winning the second. But she quickly surrendered the break and wasn’t consistent enough, finishing with 48 unforced errors against 39 winners.

“Of course I’m disappointed that I lost here in the quarters (but) I think I’m happy about my start,” Kerber said. “I’m not worried about my serve. I know I can improve it, but, I mean, that’s the second match of the year, the first tournament.

“It was not a bad match. I think we both play on the really high level tonight …so, yeah, next.”

(Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)

The Frenchwoman, who had never made it to the quarterfinals in Brisbane, defeated the 2016 WTA Finals champion in straight sets 6-3, 7-5.

“What a start of the year! It’s the first week and I think my game is not so bad.

“Beating a player like Dominika takes an amazing performance, everybody knows how much she fights and hits hard the ball. I’m just very, very, very happy,” said Cornet.

The 35-year-old Federer was playing his second match since returning from a six-month layoff because of a left knee injury. He led 5-2 in the first set, but ran into an opponent whose first-serve percentage exceeded 80 percent midway through the final set of the 2½-hour match.

But it turned out to be a winning evening for Federer and Swiss partner Belinda Bencic. Bencic beat Andrea Petkovic 6-3, 6-4 in their singles match, and then Federer and Bencic combined in mixed doubles to beat Zverev and Petkovic 4-1, 4-2 in the Fast4 format.

“She (Bencic) carried us to victory, the player of the singles, the player of the doubles,” Federer said.

Earlier Wednesday, Kristina Mladenovic and Richard Gasquet won their Group A singles matches to give France victory over Britain. Mladenovic beat Heather Watson 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 before Gasquet defeated Dan Evans 6-4, 6-2.

Gasquet and Mladenovic later defeated Evans and Watson 4-3, 4-3 in mixed doubles to complete a sweep.

The 12-time Grand Slam champion cheerfully obliged.

”I just have to mention that making a selfie after the match was over, that was the first time that I ever had this kind of experience in my career,” Djokovic said on court after beating Horacio Zeballos of Argentina 6-3, 6-4 Wednesday. ”So, Horacio, well done. Very original.”

Djokovic managed to break the Argentine once in each set while never facing a break point on the other side.

”Credit to Zeballos for playing some fearless tennis,” said Djokovic, the defending champion. ”He was stepping in and trying to go for his shots. He wasn’t backing up to the baseline.”

With the win, the second-seeded Djokovic advanced to the quarterfinals and will next face Radek Stepanek of Czech Republic.

(Photo credit: ARUN SANKAR/AFP/Getty Images)

Kovalik will next face Daniil Medvedev of Russia in quarterfinals. Medvedev advanced by beating eighth-seeded Yen-Hsun Lu of Taiwan 6-4, 6-3.

Third-seeded Albert Ramos-Vinolas also reached the quarterfinals, beating Steve Darcis of Belgium 6-2, 6-0.

Original author: Ashley Ndebele

(Photo credit: STR/AFP/Getty Images)

Halep, the 2015 champion, was broken four times in the final set. Altogether, the two players combined for 15 breaks of serve in the match.

Also, Kristyna Pliskova of the Czech Republic advanced to the quarterfinals with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Chang Kai-chen of Taiwan, and Nina Stojanovic of Serbia defeated Ons Jabeur of Tunisia 4-6, 6-3, 6-3.

Original author: Ashley Ndebele

Kvitova’s spokesman, Karel Tejkal, says the two-time Wimbledon champion has gradually started doing exercises with her injured fingers and ”all have been going according to the plans and expectations.”

Kvitova has surgery on Dec. 20 following injuries on her left hand in the attack at her home in the town of Prostejov the same day.

She is expected to out for up to six months.

Kvitova’s fellow players from the Prostejov tennis club have offered a reward of $3,850 for information leading to the arrest of the attacker, who still remains at large.

Original author: Ashley Ndebele

Despite spending his 27th birthday on Dec. 29 in transit in order to get in good preparation for the Brisbane International, Nishikori was still a little rusty in his season-opening match against Jared Donaldson before holding off the American qualifier 4-6, 6-4 6-3 on Wednesday to reach the quarterfinals.

The third-seeded Nishikori, a three-time semifinalist in Brisbane, had a first-round bye and started the second round confidently by racing to a 4-0 lead. But Donaldson responded and won the next six games to take the opening set in less than an hour, breaking Nishikori three times.

After jumping to a 3-0 lead in the second, Nishikori dropped another service game but this time was able to limit the damge and used his experience in pressure situations to calmly hold on and win the second and third sets. He will next play either eighth-seeded David Ferrer or Jordan Thompson.

Nishikori went almost immediately back out to join Dominic Thiem in a doubles quarterfinal match against Gilles Muller and Sam Querrey.

Sixth-seeded Lucas Pouille was trailing Kyle Edmund 6-3, 3-1 when he retired from their second-round match. Pouille had treatment for blisters on his feet after winning the first game of the second set, then lost three games before signaling to the umpire that he could not go on.

(Photo by Anthony Au-Yeung/Getty Images)

Top-seeded Serena was frustrated by a swirling wind, her inability to find her A-game, and a tenacious opponent as she went down 6-4, 6-7 (7-3), 6-4 to 72nd-ranked American compatriot Madison Brengle.

Older sister Venus withdrew from the tournament with an arm injury ahead of her scheduled second-round match.

The Australian Open, the year’s first Grand Slam tournament, begins on Jan. 16.

Original author: Ashley Ndebele

(Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)

Williams beat New Zealand wildcard Jade Lewis in a first-round match and was due to play Japan’s Naomi Osaka in the second round later Wednesday but withdrew before the match.

The former No.1 and seven-time grand slam winner struggled early against Lewis and had to save a set point in the first set.

Tournament director Karl Budge told reporters Williams “wasn’t able to serve as she would like to and at the level that we have come to expect from Venus and unfortunately that has taken her away from the tournament this year.”

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Original author: Andy Zodin

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Original author: Andy Zodin

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Original author: Andy Zodin

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Original author: Andy Zodin

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Original author: Andy Zodin

Here are five things to know about the new tennis ace:

Born on May 10, 2000, Aiava became the first millennium player to win a WTA main draw match when she defeated American Bethanie Mattek-Sands in the first-round match at the Brisbane International.She is of American Samoan descent. Her mother Rosie is American Samoa, and her father Mark was born in New Zealand.In 2012 at the age of 12, the 16-year-old represented Australia at Roland Garros in the Longines Future Tennis Aces Tournament.She turned pro in 2015 after receiving wildcards for singles and doubles at the Burnie International, an ITF women’s tournament held in Australia.After winning the 2017 Australian Open Wildcard Playoffs last month in both singles and doubles, Aiava will become the first player (male or female) born in the 2000’s to play at a Grand Slam.

Watch Lindsay Davenport on Aiava

Original author: Ashley Ndebele

The 16-year-old Destanee Aiava advanced through qualifying before becoming the first player born in the 2000s to win a main draw match at an elite WTA event, beating veteran American Bethanie Mattek-Sands 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 on Tuesday in a first-round match at the Brisbane International.

She’s set for another memorable mark, too, after being granted a wild-card entry to the Australian Open starting Jan. 16 in her hometown of Melbourne. Aiava is set to become the first player born in the 2000s to play a main draw match at a Grand Slam event.

Her first win in the main draw didn’t come easily, spanning two days and giving her plenty of time to think about it.

Heavy rain forced a postponement on Monday night when she led 3-0, 40-15 in the third set.

Aiava struggled with her serve briefly on resumption Tuesday, but overcame a couple of double-faults and held on to close out with an ace on her first match point.

Ultimate Tennis Blog wishes everyone a happy, healthy, and successful new year full of memorable tennis moments. Yesterday the new tennis season got underway in Doha, Brisbane, and Chennai.

The 2017 tennis season is a new beginning in the sense that Federer and Nadal are back while Djokovic is trying to reassert his dominance which he lost in the second half of 2016.

That attempt almost had a disastrous beginning when Djokovic went down 0-4 to Struff in his opening match in Doha. Struff was blasting winner after winner while Djokovic was hitting short and making one unforced error after the other.

It was a very shaky start to the year, to say the least, but Djokovic recovered very well as he won the first set 7-1 on the tiebreak. After the Becker breakup, I feared the worst but it was nice to see Djokovic find his rhythm as he won the second set 6-3 after getting the second break at 5-3.

Murray attained the No. 1 ranking in his final match of the season last year, winning a career-best ninth title by upsetting then No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the ATP Finals championship match.

Murray, who won back-to-back Doha titles in 2008 and 2009, was greeted enthusiastically by the crowd when he took to the court.

One fan held up a handwritten sign, ”Welcome to Doha Sir Andy,” referencing his recently being knighted by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth.

Murray won the opening set by posting only one unforced error and seven winners. In all, Murray had nine unforced errors and 18 winners.

The 69th-ranked Chardy settled into the second set, even managing to break Murray’s serve in the first game.

The top-seeded Pole broke Cirstea six times, a day after being forced to save three match points in a lengthy three-set win over Chinese wild-card entry Duan Ying-ying.

Radwanska will next face Alison Riske of the United States, the player she beat in last year’s final. Riske advanced by beating Tsvetlana Pironkova on Bulgaria 6-1, 6-1.

Third-seeded Johanna Konta also reached the quarterfinals after rallying to beat Vania King 1-6, 6-3, 6-2, while Wang Qiang defeated seventh-seeded Monica Niculescu 7-6 (1), 6-4.

Original author: Ashley Ndebele