There were a number of shocks in the first round of Qualifying at the Australian Open in Melbourne. 124 men began the day contesting for what will ultimately be 16 qualifying spots for the main draw proper, which begins on Monday.
The first big shock of the day saw 2nd seed Nicolas Mahut go out to Danilo Petrovic. The 35 year-old veteran Frenchman was beaten 7-6, 6-3. 3rd seed Marco Cecchinato joined Mahut as a shock early exit. The Italian was beaten 6-3, 7-6 by Australian wildcard Bradley Mousley.
Britain’s 6th seed Cameron Norrie endured a tough battle with Canada’s Filip Peliwo before emerging the winner 6-1, 6-7, 6-4. Norrie was joined by 17th seed Dustin Brown, who edged Argentina’s Guido Andreozzi 6-3, 3-6, 6-3. 9th seed Alexander Bublik had a major win in the first round last year, when he beat Lucas Pouille. This year, he struggled past Goncalo Oliveira to the second round of qualifying 6-3, 1-6, 6-3.
The Czech Republic’s Vaclav Safranek ended the interests of 32nd seed Renzo Olivo 7-6, 6-2. Olivo qualified and reached the second round in 2016, but there would be no repeat of that this year for the Argentine. Henri Laaksonen, the 14th seed, bowed out in the first round of qualifying for the second year in a row. The Swiss was beaten 7-6, 6-3 by Italy’s Federico Gaio. 7th seed Roberto Carballes Baena drew American Denis Kudla in the first round. Kudla won through 6-3, 7-5.
Kevin King followed Kudla’s lead as he also took down a seed. 31st seed Uladzimir Ignatik was the casualty on this occasion, 7-6, 6-2. 8th seed Gastao Elias is far more suited to clay, and it showed. He was beaten by the more versatile Jozef Kovalik 6-2, 6-2. 30th seed Sebastien Ofner had a great run at Wimbledon, reaching the third round as a qualifier. He would not reproduce the feat in Melbourne though, beaten 7-6, 7-5 by France’s Stephane Robert.
In some of the more interesting matches came from unremarkable matches on paper. Stefan Kozlov of the United States saved four match points to defeat Blake Ellis 7-6, 4-6, 7-6 in just over three hours. Ellis had served for the match in third.
Bradley Klahn was another who failed to win despite serving for the match. The American had the chance to knock out 28th seed Ramkumar Ramanathan, but was eventually beaten 6-7, 7-6, 6-2.
20th seed Matteo Berrettini was forced to fight hard to edge Britain’s Liam Broady. Broady had taken the first set before Berrettini came back to win 5-7, 6-3, 7-6.
10th seed Yannick Hanfmann moved to the second round with a 6-1, 7-6 win over Evan King, but 23rd seed compatriot Oscar Otter was beaten 6-3, 7-6 by Go Soeda. 16th seed Sergiy Stakhovsky was also an unlikely casualty, beaten by Matthias Bachinger 4-6, 7-6, 6-3.
