Karolina Pliskova celebrates her victory over Victoria Azarenka at the Brisbane International. (AFP)
Brisbane: Czech player Karolina Pliskova spoiled Victoria Azarenka’s comeback bid after an injury-marred 2014, winning a gruelling first-round match at the Brisbane International yesterday.
Pliskova displayed incredible fighting spirit to hold off the former world number one and win the match 4-6, 7-6 (9/7), 6-4 in three-and-a-quarter hours. Azarenka, who won her maiden WTA title in Brisbane in 2009, played only nine tournaments last year after suffering foot and knee injuries. She slipped to a year-end ranking of 32 and entered the season-opening tournament unseeded.
Pliskova, ranked eight places higher at 24, withstood everything Azarenka threw at her, saving two match points in the 84-minute second set before forcing a decider.
Germany’s Angelique Kerber ended a run of defeats by the seeded players when she downed Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia in straight games 6-4, 6-3.
Fourth-seeded Slovakian Dominika Cibulkova had earlier crashed out to American Madison Keys 7-5, 6-2, joining fellow seeds Andrea Petkovic (5) and Jelena Jankovic (6) as first-round losers.
Keys has now beaten Cibulkova in all three of their meetings and said she was well-suited to the diminutive Slovakian’s style. “I think it’s just one of those things where (players) just kind of match up a certain way,” she said.
“I definitely usually play my best against her since she’s such a great player, so I always go in knowing she’s going to get a ton of balls back and I’m going to have to play my absolute best.”
In the men’s draw, Australian young guns James Duckworth and Thanasi Kokkinakis both cruised to upset wins over higher-ranked French opponents.
Duckworth, 22, smashed sixth seed Gilles Simon 6-2, 6-2 at the Pat Rafter Arena before 18-year-old Kokkinakis downed Julien Benneteau, the eighth seed, 6-4, 6-3.
There was some good news for the French, however, with Jeremy Chardy beating Kazakhstan’s Andrey Golubev 6-4, 6-4.
