At Australian Open, Serena Williams, Rafael Nadal hear history's call

Serena Williams gets her 11th chance to tie Margaret Court‘s record. Rafael Nadal takes his first crack at breaking the one he now shares with Roger Federer.

But neither is favored at the Australian Open, which starts Monday (Sunday night in the U.S.).

Williams returns to the site of her 23rd and most recent major title, way back in 2017, when she was pregnant with daughter Olympia.

Since then, she has yearned to match the Australian Court for the most major singles titles, reaching four finals and leaving each one with the runner-up trophy. At 39, Williams’ chances to win No. 24 are decreasing with every passing Grand Slam tennis tournament.

“It’s definitely on my shoulders and on my mind,” she said of the record that Court holds, though most of Court’s wins came before the Open Era and, of those in Australia, before the world’s top women all played. “I think it’s good to be on my mind. I think it’s a different burden, I should say, on my shoulders because I’m used to it now. It’s more relaxing.”

PointsBet Sportsbook has three players with greater odds to lift the trophy in Melbourne in two weeks, led by defending champion Naomi Osaka.

AUSTRALIAN OPEN DRAWS: Women | Men

Williams, seeded 10th, opens against German Laura Siegemund. She would not play a past major champion before the quarterfinals but is on the more accomplished half of the draw, along with Osaka, Simona Halep and Spaniard Garbiñe Muguruza.

Some routine early matches would be beneficial. Williams said she probably would not have played the Australian Open if it was held on its usual dates, three weeks earlier, citing an Achilles injury that forced her to withdraw from the French Open on Sept. 30.

She’s also nursing a right shoulder.

“It’s definitely something that I’m going to have to deal with for the fortnight,” she said. “I’m going to have to probably pick up some different therapy exercises after each match, etcetera.”

Nadal, too, must manage his body. The 34-year-old, who matched Federer’s male record 20 major titles with his 13th French Open in October, said on Sunday that a back injury hampered him the last 15 days.

“I tried little bit today to serve again,” he said, noting he is practicing while a muscle is still tight. “Is difficult to play with freedom of movements today.

“Of course, it worries me a little bit.”

Nadal, whose lone Australian Open title came in 2009, is seeded second. He would not play top-ranked Novak Djokovic until a possible final and benefits from No. 3 Dominic Thiem landing in Djokovic’s half. Federer, 39, will miss a third consecutive major tournament following two knee surgeries.

Djokovic, eyeing an 18th major title, owns a record eight Australian Open crowns.

“I’ve been feeling more comfortable on the court each year that I’ve been coming back,” the Serbian said. “It feels right. It feels like the place where I should be and where I have historically always been able to perform my best tennis.”

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Skating as U.S. Championships favorite for the first time, Ilia Malinin seized the short program, landing two exquisite quadruple jumps and taking a massive lead into Sunday’s free skate.

Malinin, the world’s second-ranked skater and overwhelming favorite, hit a quad Lutz in combination and a quad toe loop in San Jose, California. He did not include his patented jump, the quad Axel, which is not allowed in short programs.

“I still can’t believe I managed to pull that off,” Malinin, who had multiple jumping errors in his four previous short programs this season, said on USA Network. “This whole season, I was always so nervous for the short because I didn’t know what to expect, but I think it’s the risk of learning something new this season with going to other choreographers.”

He tallied 110.36 points and leads by 10.11 over 2015 U.S. champion Jason Brown, who is competing for the first time since placing sixth at last February’s Olympics. Brown did not attempt a quad, but what Malinin has in jumps, Brown has in artistry.

FIGURE SKATING NATIONALS: Full Scores | Broadcast Schedule

Tomoki Hiwatashi, the 2020 U.S. bronze medalist who missed last year’s nationals due to COVID, is another 14.82 points behind Brown in third.

Camden Pulkinen, fifth at last year’s world championships, fell on his first two jumps and is 11th, 15.96 behind Hiwatashi.

A committee selects the three-man team for March’s world championships after the free skate.

Malinin, 18, is expected to attempt a quad Axel in the free, just as he has at all four of his international events in this his first full senior season.

Malinin was second to Nathan Chen at last year’s nationals but left off the three-man Olympic team in an unsurprising committee decision because of his lack of experience.

Motivated by it, he won the world junior title by largest margin in history in April. In September, he became the first skater to land the quad Axel, the most difficult of the six quad jumps and the only one that had yet to be done. He has thought about trying to become the first skater to land a quintuple jump.

Chen, who won the previous six U.S. titles, hasn’t competed since the Olympics and isn’t expected to return to competition, though he has not ruled it out.

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Full scores and results from the 2023 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in San Jose …

Women’s Short Program
1. Isabeau Levito — 73.782. Bradie Tennell — 73.763. Starr Andrews — 68.974. Amber Glenn — 68.965. Gracie Gold — 67.446. Lindsay Thorngren — 62.647. Clare Seo — 61.488. Ava Ziegler — 61.099. Audrey Shin — 60.7610. Ting Cui — 57.1111. Josephine Lee — 55.6012. Lindsay Wang — 52.1913. Sonja Hilmer — 51.1614. Michelle Lee — 46.7115. Gabriella Izzo — 45.7316. Alexa Gasparotto — 45.0017. Elsa Cheng — 44.36