The Times - UK (2022-01-03)

52 2GM Monday January 3 2022 | the times

SportTennis

5

It only took 33 days for Great Britain to
gain revenge over Germany in a tennis
team event. Barely a month since a
deeply disappointing quarter-final
defeat in the Davis Cup, Dan Evans and
Jamie Murray ensured there was to be
no repeat in the ATP Cup as the new
season got under way in Australia.
Although they are in separate
calendar years, it is plainly absurd that
two competitions with near-identical
formats are taking place with so little
time in between. The fractured nature
of the sport’s leadership structure is to
blame, with seven different governing
bodies spoiling the broth, and there still
seems no prospect of a sensible merger
of the events any time soon. As a result,
there is scarcely a chance for players to
put their feet up in December before
the racket is pulled out of the bag again.
With this in mind, Evans’s effort in
Sydney yesterday was commendable. A
couple of hours after opening this
group tie with a comfortable 6-1, 6-2
win against Jan-Lennard Struff, the 31-
year-old returned to the court with
Jamie Murray to complete the overall
2-1 victory by defeating Alexander
Zverev and Kevin Krawietz 6-3, 6-4.
“I didn’t get much of a chance to get
any work in really [last month],” Evans
said. “I just carried on from last year,
had a little rest, and just got back to
playing a little. Not a massive pre-
season, but I’m going to do that after
Australia and have a few weeks to work
on myself after that. It’s challenging but
that’s the calendar and that’s what
we’re out here to do.”
At least Cameron Norrie had the
opportunity to sit back after the best
season of his career when he contracted
Covid-19 last month and spent ten days
in isolation at his London apartment
before Christmas. Presently at a career-
high world ranking of No 12, the 26-
year-old is confident that the virus will

not impact his play in Australia this

month. He lost 7-6 (7-2), 6-1 to Zverev

yesterday but pushed the world No 3

hard in the early stages and brought up

a set point, which he failed to convert.

“I had no symptoms, I was fortunate,”

Norrie said. “It was unfortunate I

couldn’t get out on the court, but I had

had a long season, played a lot of

matches [77 in total], so it wasn’t the

worst thing in the world for me. I did a

little bit of fitness [at home] throughout

that period and stayed healthy.”

The significance of the ATP Cup was

undermined by the decision of Rafael

Nadal not to represent Spain and

instead play a warm-up tournament in

Melbourne this week. The 20-times

grand-slam champion, making his

competitive return after a five-month

absence because of a foot injury, is in

the opposite half of the Melbourne

Summer Set draw to Andy Murray, who

was not eligible to compete for Britain

in Sydney because he is his country’s

fifth-ranked player.

Remarkably, with only two weeks

until the Australian Open gets under

way, uncertainty remains over the

participation of Novak Djokovic. The

tournament director, Craig Tiley, could

not confirm yesterday whether the

nine-times champion will turn up in

Melbourne, where all players must

be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 or

have a medical exemption. Djokovic

has not disclosed his vaccination status

and is practising at tennis academies in

the south of Spain.

“We’ve got a few charter flights

coming in until the end of this week and

then all the players will be here,” Tiley

told Australia’s Channel Nine. “As far as

the status relates to Novak, we’ll have a

much clearer picture in the coming

days, otherwise it’s getting pretty late to

show up and play the Australian Open.

There’s quite a bit to play out and I think

it will play out in the coming days.”

British players in action

down under this week

ATP Cup, Sydney

Tomorrow, 6.30am UK

Great Britain (Cameron Norrie, Dan

Evans, Liam Broady, Joe Salisbury

and Jamie Murray) v Canada (Denis

Shapovalov, Félix Auger-Aliassime,

Brayden Schnur)

ATP Melbourne Summer Set

Tomorrow, time TBC

Andy Murray v

Facundo Bagnis (Arg)

WTA Adelaide International

Today, 6am

Heather Watson v

Ajla Tomljanovic (Aus)

Hector Pardoe thought he had lost an
eye after being struck by a stray
elbow deep into the men’s 10km
marathon swimming at the Tokyo
Olympics last summer.
At the time, the 20-year-old from
Wrexham also thought the episode —
in which he suffered deep cuts above
and below his right eye and bruising

Pardoe looks to Paris after recovering from brutal blow in Tokyo

to the socket — had been an accident,

but with his vision fully restored, he

now sees it differently.

“I know what happened now. After

the race, I thought it was an accident,

unintentional, but then I learnt who it

was,” Pardoe says, declining to be

drawn on the individual’s identity. “I

now think it was intentional. I’ve been

hit in the face before in previous

races, in my nose and eye area, and

it’s never had that much power

behind it or hurt so badly.

“There’s no footage or anything;

nothing I could really have done to

prove it. I could have launched an

appeal on the day but at the time I

thought it was an accident. Because I

was so distraught, I wasn’t really

looking into that part. All I was feeling

was upset at not having finished.

“In terms of the damage, that was

all fine. I was going to get some

stitches put in by the GB doctor but I

was going on holiday five days later to

Greece, so she just put some glue stuff

in it and it healed up really quickly.”

The real pain was at not having

completed the race, after an

incredible couple of years when

Pardoe covered huge distances very

quickly, in every possible sense.

Working with the renowned French

coach Philippe Lucas in Montpellier,

the former Ellesmere College pupil

put in 85-90km per week and claimed

one of the last tickets to Tokyo at a

qualifier in Portugal last June.

“My dream had only become a

realistic one in the previous two years,

but the progression I made in such a

short space of time was really pleasing,

there was constant momentum and I

was really confident going into the

Olympics,” he explains. “To then not

even finish was a big step back and

really hard to get over.”

It both helped and hindered that

his girlfriend, Cassandre Beaugrand,

returned from Japan with a bronze

medal, having been part of the French

mixed triathlon team.

“It was really nice to see her get

that because like me she’d had a bit of

a nightmare in the individuals,

crashing on her bike. That said, it was

a reminder of what I’d missed out on.

Swimmer feared he had

lost an eye at Olympics

and is already focused

on ‘redemption’ in 2024,

he tells Mark Palmer

Pardoe was struck by an elbow and

now believes it was not an accident

Evans gets revenge

over Germany in

‘non-stop season’

Stuart Fraser

Tennis

Correspondent

Evans won in the singles and doubles as Britain beat Germany 2-1 at the ATP Cup

Martina Navratilova

has predicted a

challenging season for

Emma Raducanu, as

the 19-year-old Briton

experienced an early

setback by

withdrawing from a

warm-up tournament

ahead of the

Australian Open.

Raducanu was

scheduled to compete

in this week’s

Melbourne Summer

Set but decided on

Saturday that she

needs another week of

practice after her pre-

season preparations

were disrupted by a

positive test result for

Covid-19 on December

10. She spent ten days

in isolation in an Abu

Dhabi hotel room and

arrived in Australia

last Thursday.

Sources close to

Raducanu’s team

insist that there is no

cause for concern

before the Australian

Open, which starts in

Melbourne on January

17 and which will be

Players have worked out how

to beat Emma, says Navratilova

Australian

Open

Melbourne Park

January 17-30

TV: Eurosport

Radio: BBC 5 Live