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Live: Local hopes fall in Brisbane qualifiers, Kazakhstan get United Cup campaign off to a flier

Live: Local hopes fall in Brisbane qualifiers, Kazakhstan get United Cup campaign off to a flier

Live updates: China 0-0 Brazil

Xinyu Gao vs Beatriz Haddad Maia

Zhizhen Zhang vs Thiago Monteiro

Zhang/Zhang vs Haddad Maia/Matos

Tennis has a short offseason…

In Brisbane…

Priscilla Hon has taken the first set against Harriet Dart.

Neither woman could hold their serve in that first set, taking three games off each other each.

But the 26-year-old Brisbane local prevailed in the tie break 8-6.

Iga Świątek opens up over WADA appeal on doping case

-AAP

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World number two Iga Świątek is ready to move on from her doping saga, saying there is no reason for the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to appeal her case.

The five-time major champion is set to compete in the United Cup after serving a one-month suspension in November after testing positive for banned substance trimetazidine (TMZ).

Poland’s Świątek was cleared of wrongdoing by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA), who accepted her positive test was caused by contamination of her medication melatonin, which was manufactured and sold in Poland.

(Getty Images)

Świątek made her first public comments on the saga when she fronted media for the first time since her ban ahead of the United Cup’s Sydney matches.

She said she was confident the ITIA had been thorough in their investigation and there would be no need for an appeal from WADA.

“I don’t think there is any reason because I didn’t play three tournaments, I was suspended for a long time and I lost number one because of that,” Świątek said on Friday.

“I also know how the procedure works and I gave every possible evidence, and there is not much, honestly, to do more.

“Like, there’s no point to do an appeal in our opinion.

“I can say from the process that I went through and how they treated me from the beginning, that it seemed fair for me.

“I managed to give the source really quickly. That’s why the case closed pretty quickly.

“It was a fair process, and I trust ITIA, any case they do, their conduct treats every player the same.”

Świątek, winner of the past three French Opens, admitted she was surprised by the support she received following her doping ban.

The 23-year-old was provisionally suspended in September but cited personal reasons when she pulled out of the China Open.

Having also missed the Korea Open and Wuhan Open, her suspension was made public after she served her month-long ban.

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Former Wimbledon and French Open champion Simona Halep and Nick Kygrios were among those who criticised the way Świątek’s doping case was handled, but the former world number one said she had been heartened by the response she had got from the general public.

“After the information about my case was released, I was scared that, you know, most people were going to turn their back on me, but I felt the support, and it’s great,” Świątek said.

“Obviously, there are going to be some negative comments.

“You’re not going to avoid that, but that’s something that is always going to follow us no matter what happens in our lives.

“We’re public persons. I just have to accept that.”

Poland will begin their United Cup campaign on December 30 against Norway, with Świątek taking on Malene Helgø at Ken Rosewall Arena before the men’s singles and mixed doubles matches.

More Aussies fall in Brisbane qualifying

Astra Sharma is the latest Aussie to fall by the wayside at the Queensland Tennis Centre.

She lost 6-3, 6-2 to Russia’s world number 107-ranked Polina Kudermetova.

Then, Arina Rodionova, who made headlines after bemoaning the fact she missed out on a wild card for last year’s Australian Open, also lost to Ana Bogdan, the sixth-seed from Romania.

That means, of the seven Aussies who have played so far today in the Queensland capital, six have lost.

Home hope Priscilla Hon is currently in action against Britain’s second seed Harriet Dart, looking to join Aussie Maddison Inglis in the second round.

Australian Open runner-up Qinwen Zheng will skip the United Cup

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China is in action in this, the evening session of the first day’s play in Perth.

But they will be without last year’s Australian Open finalist Qinwen Zheng, who will skip the build up tournament.

“After the long season that 2024 was for me, I need a few extra weeks of rest, recovery, and good training to get ready for the new season,” she said earlier this month.

“I had such a fantastic time at the United Cup in January of this year, and therefore will miss the event greatly.

“Still, I’m so excited to be back in Australia soon and I will see you all in Melbourne in a couple of weeks.”

Zheng’s absence means world number 175 Gao Xinyu will be China’s top-ranked female player, and will line up in the singles against world number 17 Beatriz Haddad Maia.

World number 45 Zhang Zhizhen will take on world number 109 Thiago Monteiro in the men’s match.

Yeah, but that’s over now

Not interested in tennis at this stage, while there’s a huge cricket game going on at the MCG.

– Merrowyn

I hear you, Merrowyn, but we’ve still got three tennis matches to go today over in Perth.

Kazakhstan enjoy ‘super fun’ win

“If Lena was not with me in this match, we lose,” Shevchenko said.

“It’s super fun [playing mixed doubles], it’s unbelievable, especially if you have a partner like Lena, she was hitting the ball so well.”

They both say that the match was incredibly tough, which you’d expect at two minutes over two hours.

“It was such a tough match,” Rybakina said.

“Thanks to him, he was so good and it was great to get the win.”

Kazakhstan beats Spain!

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Brilliant from Elena Rybakina!

She did not stutter during a brutal final, cross-court rally, holding her nerve and forcing  Carreño Busta to bite across and give Shevchenko the chance to hit the winner.

It went all the way to the final tie breaker of the final match, and it is Kazakhstan who have come from behind to secure the win!

What are the rules in the 10-point match tie break?

In doubles matches, there is no third set, instead the match goes to a 10-point match tie break.

In these instances, the first player or team to win 10 points by a two-point margin wins the match.

If the score in the match tiebreaker becomes tied at 10 points, play continues until a player or team has a two-point lead.

This is similar to the 10-point tie breaker situation at the end of the final set in grand slams, should the score be 6-6.

And now we’re going to a 10-point final set tie break!

This is a superb contest – another tremendously even set that, this time, Spain came out on top of 7-2 in the tie break.

One hour 51 minutes into this match and we’re not done yet.

And we’re heading to a second-set tie break

Spain breaks back!

Tremendous stuff from Spain.

They have broken back and then held their serve to be back on at 5-4.

Cavallé-Reimers deserves all the credit there, a sumptuous drop shot ending a brilliant rally from the team in red.

Kazakhstan serving to stay in the match.

Kazakhstan breaks!

That’s a huge moment in this match.

Kazakhstan, already leading 1-0 in sets, has just earned a break of serve, leading 4-3 off the back of some power hitting from Alexander Shevchenko.

He seems really up for it, growing an extra inch from his rather meek singles match earlier in the day.

He’s responded perfectly to that and could be leading his team to a first-up win.

What is the Electronic Line Calling system?

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If you’ve watched tennis for a while, you may remember that line judges have been used for generations to determine whether close calls are out.

Well, now, increasingly, a computer does that instead.

Indeed, the ATP said there will be Tour-wide adoption of the Electronic Line Calling Live system (ELC Live) from this season, having first been used at the Next Gen finals in 2017.

The technology covers all court lines for ‘out’ calls throughout matches, a role traditionally carried out by those on-court line judges.

The ELC Live shouts “out” just like a normal line judge would, and it is this part which has failed in Perth.

(Hawkeye)

For a few years, there has been a combination of ELC Live, ELC Review and on-court line judges at ATP Tour events.

The ATP said in a press release in 2023 that “the move is set to optimise accuracy and consistency across tournaments, match courts and surfaces, for players competing in both main draw and qualifying events.”.

“This is a landmark moment for our sport, and not one we’ve reached without careful consideration,” Andrea Gaudenzi, ATP Chairman, said.

“Tradition is core to tennis and line judges have played an important part in the game over the years. That said, we have a responsibility to embrace innovation and new technologies.

“Our sport deserves the most accurate form of officiating and we’re delighted to be able to deliver this across our whole Tour from 2025.”

The electronic line calling system is kaput

Interestingly, there is no call as the ball clearly goes out wide. The players all look at the umpire, who then confirms the ball was out.

There was no sound from the automatic line judge system though…

“The ELC (Electronic Line Calling) system is working, but there is a problem with the audio,” confirms umpire Adel Nour.

Aleksandr Nedovyesov, the team captain for Kazakhstan, gets into a bit of a verbal altercation with the umpire now though.

“Say something,” he demands, upon which umpire Nour explains his decisions.

Just a bit of frustration from Kazakhstan, despite things going pretty well for them in this winner-takes-all mixed doubles decider.

It’s 2-2 in the second set.

Pablo Carreño Busta is flying all over the place

Kazakhstan takes lead

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It went to a tie breaker, but Alexander Shevchenko and Elena Rybakina got the job done 7-6 (4).

This match is a really good one, it’s already been going an hour and both sets of players have been absolutely sublime.

In the end, it was the solidity of Rybakina that made the difference.

Another Aussie misses out in Brisbane

Tina Smith is out of the Brisbane International too, she has fallen to Czech fifth seed Sára Bejlek in straight sets 6-3, 7-6(2).

The 18-year-old Czech player was very erratic on serve, hitting eight double faults and no aces, but did enough to win.

Bejlek’s only ranked 161 in the world, but if she can reach the main draw, she’d be a good one to watch out for.

Net game on point from these pairs