The final Challenger of the Australian swing is under way in Launceston, and already there have been a few major stories to tell.
Omar Jasika picked up his maiden title last week in Burnie, and would have hope for a easy-ish first round draw. That was not the case, as he instead faced the man he beat in the Burnie semi-finals in Dmitry Popko. Fortunately for Jasika, the end result was the same, as he beat the Kazakh in straight sets 63 75, improving on the up-and-down performance he delivered in the Burnie semi-finals.
In other early matches, Mitchell Krueger scored a good win, knocking out eighth seed and Burnie semi-finalist Akira Santillan 64 75.The American was impressive when facing break points, saving nine from ten faced.
A blow for the draw occurred before Daniel Nguyen’s match, as his scheduled opponent fifth seed Sam Groth was forced to withdraw with a right abductor injury. Nathan Pasha was moved up as a lucky loser replacement. Nguyen took full advantage of his fortune, defeating Pasha 76 76.
Italian Riccardo Bellotti was another beneficiary of seeded misfortune, as second seed Jan Satral was forced to retire with Bellotti leading 62 31.
Satral, Santillan, and Groth continue the exodus of seeds in the first round, as they join third seed Jason Jung as early departures, with out-of-form top seed Go Soeda still yet to face young talent Alex de Minaur.
There were early wins for Alex Bolt, Christopher O’Connell, sixth seed Mohamed Safwat, Maverick Banes (over Jung), and Tsung-Hua Yang.
The early defeats for seeds have opened up the draw, in particular the bottom half, as no seed is still in the bottom quarter following the withdrawal of Groth and the retirement of Satral. It offers the likes of Daniel Nguyen and Max Purcell to perhaps make a run to the quarter-finals.
Third quarter seeds Noah Rubin and Andrew Whittington might fancy their chances of making the final after seeing the higher-ranked Satral fall so early.
