Maria Sharapova beat Venus Williams in a landslide (6-1, 6-3) and Novak Djokovic won big over Radek Stepanek in round three of the Australian Open. Djokovic also spoke out about his feelings on Lance Armstrong.
Serena Williams, Andy Murray, and Juan Martin del Potro will all play at 11pm EST on Friday, while Venus & Serena will continue their doubles effort in Saturday's round two.
Tenth-seeded Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark (the girlfriend of the PGA Tour's Rory McIlroy) and Russian Maria Kirilenko (the NHL's Alexander Ovechkin's fiancé) will both have 11 pm EST match-ups on Friday as well, against Lesya Tsurenko and Yanina Wickmayer respectively.
Roger Federer's third match of the tournament will be on at 7 am EST on Saturday against Bernard Tomic.
Djokovic called Armstrong a disgrace, and believes he should, "suffer for his lies." The first-seeded Djokovic mentioned in an ESPN report that he has not had a blood test in six months, but he is confident the current testing structure in tennis keeps the game clean.
"I lost a lot of faith in cycling. I used to watch it. All the big champions that were there, Marco Pantani, now Lance Armstrong," Djokovic said. "There has been so much controversy about that sport. I'm sure that there are many cyclists in the world who are training very hard and trying to not use any enhancing drugs for their competition.
"As long as it's fair, it's clean, we're trying to protect the identity of this sport," Djokovic added. "I believe tennis players are [some] of the cleanest athletes in the world and one of the most competitive sports. So as long as we keep it that way, I have no complaints about testing.
Video Highlights
Video highlights of the championship could be found at this location.
Live Streaming
You can watch the official Australian Open live stream here. (Service Provider Required)
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