DOUBLE GRAND SLAM winner Garbine Muguruza triumphed in the latest women’s match ever held at the Australian Open after defeating Johanna Konta at the wee hour of 3:12 AM.
Muguruza and Konta’s match on Margaret Court Arena did not start until 12:30 am and finished with a 6-4, 6-7 (3/7), 7-5 victory for the Spaniard two hours and 42 minutes.
The start was delayed when the men’s match between Alexander Zverev and Jeremy Chardy turned into three hour 46-minute epic, ending 7-6 (7/5), 6-4, 5-7, 6-7 (6/8), 6-1 for Germany’s Zverev.
“I’ll go get some breakfast now,” Muguruza joked after wrapping up the win to set up a third-round clash with Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland.
The previous record for the latest start was set last year when a second-round match between Daria Gavrilova and Elise Mertens began at 11:59 pm.
The latest end to a match at any Grand Slam was also at Melbourne Park in 2008, when Lleyton Hewitt and Marcos Baghdatis finished a five-setter at 4:34 am.
Despite the hour, both Muguruza and Konta made a contest of their late-night encounter, which was watched live by only a few die-hard spectators.
Muguruza, seeded 18, took the first set as she seeks to recapture the form that propelled her to the world number one ranking and delivered a French Open title in 2016 and Wimbledon a year later.
Former world number four Konta, a semi-finalist Down Under in 2016, won the second in a tie-break after Muguruza squandered two break points.
The Spaniard made no mistake in the third, breaking the British hope late in the set to avoid another tie-break.
Subscribe to our new podcast, Heineken Rugby Weekly on The42, here:
Don’t follow American football that much bar watching the Super Bowl every year but this was a very well-written article. Cheers Steve.
@EK: pre season
Star wars Patriots parody
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tawltTWLmK8
Lost his number one receiver against best pass defence in the league with a throwing hand with 12 stitches in it and still won, greatness!!!
Jags took a knee in the first with nearly a minute left and 3 timeouts….would the Pats ever do that, hell no….knew they were beat when they done that.
@Dick Durkin: yeah and they were child like with the clock near the end, not running it down when blatantly obvious to do so before the 2 min warning
@Baz: put it down to inexperience, they were easily the better team for 3 quarters…they’ll learn from it and they’ll be there or there abouts next season.
@Dick Durkin: No guarantee in football that they will be back.
Watching the game, Jags went hell for leather in first half
I was thinking, they will be gassed by 4th quarter
So they will need a big lead
Patriots don’t even beat teams anymore. There myth like status beats most team either before the game or when the pressure is on in the 4th quarter….Patriots just take advantage.
Peyton Manning is the GOAT.
@Leon: Regular season GOAT
Great article Steve (again as usual)