MELBOURNE, Australia—A capacity crowd of more than 15,000 at Rod Laver Arena watched Roger Federer defeat Nick Kyrgios in a one-set finale to the Australian Open’s Rally for Relief to aid wildfire charities on Wednesday.
Tennis Australia said the night helped raise nearly 5 million Australian dollars ($3.5 million) for the victims of recent and ongoing fires in Australia that have killed 28 people and destroyed several thousands homes, most of them in New South Wales and Victoria states.
Smoke haze from the continuing fires has played havoc with scheduling of the first two days of qualifying at Melbourne Park, delaying play by several hours and prompting complaints from players over the air quality.
Other players who took part included Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams, Caroline Wozniacki and Alexander Zverev. On several occasions, volunteer fire personnel were invited on the court to play against the tennis stars.
The fund-raising efforts, which includes various amounts for aces served during the tournament and the sale of merchandise donated by players, will continue when the Australian Open begins on Monday.
Two-time major winner Garbine Muguruza, meanwhile, has withdrawn from her quarterfinal match at the Hobart International on Thursday with a viral illness.
Second-seeded Muguruza was scheduled to play Veronika Kudermetova. The Russian will receive a walkover and advance to the semifinals.
Muguruza won the 2016 French Open and 2017 Wimbledon.
Top-seeded Elise Mertens was scheduled to play Heather Watson among the other quarterfinals on Thursday.
Alex de Minaur also withdrew on Thursday from the Australian Open due to an abdominal strain.
The same injury also forced the 20-year-old Australian to pull out of the Adelaide International on Monday. He was the top-seeded player in that tournament.
“It’s not great, I’m not going to lie…it’s pretty devastating to miss out on my home Slam,” de Minaur said Thursday. “I wanted to go out there and play, even though I’ve got a grade-two tear.
“Pretty much everyone around me told me that I shouldn’t play and I was still planning on going out there [but]…it was the smart decision and the right decision.”
De Minaur had been playing well heading into the Australian Open, winning two singles for Australia at the Association of Tennis Professionals Cup tournament last week and taking Rafael Nadal to three sets.
De Minaur was to have been seeded No. 20 at the Australian Open that begins Monday at Melbourne Park.
Aryna Sabalenka, on the other hand, has beaten second-seeded and two-time Grand Slam champion Simona Halep, 6-4, 6-2, in the quarterfinals of the Adelaide International at Memorial Drive.
The sixth-seeded and world 12th-ranked Sabalenka advances to a semifinal against Dayana Yastremska, who earlier Thursday beat Donna Vekic, 6-4, 6-3.
Halep won the 2018 French Open and Wimbledon last year.
The other later quarterfinals feature world No. 1 Ashleigh Barty against Marketa Vondrousova in a rematch of last year’s French Open final won by Barty, and American Danielle Collins against fourth-seeded Belinda Bencic.
Williams will be part of the US team for its Fed Cup qualifier against Latvia, the US Tennis Association said Wednesday.
It will be the first time Williams has participated in the Fed Cup since 2018. Williams has played in 10 previous Fed Cup competitions, and is 13-0 in singles and 3-2 in doubles since her first appearance in 1999.
The US will face Latvia on February 7 and 8 in Everett, Washington. The winner will advance to the Fed Cup finals in April in Budapest, Hungary. The US must finalize the rest of its roster by January 28.
Williams will be seeking her 24th Grand Slam title when the Australian Open begins next week. She won her 73rd career Women’s Tennis Association singles title last week in Auckland, New Zealand. AP
Image credits: AP