Australian Open Day One: The 30 most talked about topics - UBITENNIS
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Australian Open Day One: The 30 most talked about topics

By Ubaldo Scanagatta
9 Min Read
  1. I will start with saying that this Australian Open is Grand Slam No. 200 of the Open Era and 50 of them were won by the “Fab Four” – Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Murray. It is certainly an astonishing stat, considering that the Open Era began in 1968 and the “Fab Four” started winning Grand Slams in 2003!
  2. The American squad lost 12 of the 15 players that competed on day one. 5 of them were seeded players.
  3. At last year’s Australian Open in the women’s tournament, three of the four semifinalists were from the United States (Serena, Venus and Vandeweghe), and in New York all four semifinalists were also from the U.S. (Stephens, Keys, Venus and Vandeweghe). Today No. 5-seed Venus Williams, No. 10-seed CoCo Vandeweghe and No. 13-seed Sloane Stephens all lost in the first round.
  4. The misfortunes of American tennis continued in the men’s tournament, with the elimination of No. 8-seed Jack Sock and No. 16-seed John Isner.
  5. Brady, Bellis, Kenin, Riske, Townsend, Falconi in the women’s tournament and King in the men’s are the other Americans that were sent home today.
  6. The only American players that survived day one unscathed are Nicole Gibbs, Ryan Harrison and Mackenzie McDonald.
  7. Very few Americans will take the court on day two, therefore they will surely not be able to lose more than 12 matches.
  8. The women’s tournament overall saw the upset of five seeded players. The men’s event had five surprising eliminations as well, which should make Billie Jean King and every advocate of equal prize-money extremely proud.
  9. The seeds that were eliminated from the women’s tournament are: No. 5 Venus  Williams (lost to Bencic),  no. 10 Vandeweghe (lost to Babos), No. 13 Stephens (lost to Shuai Zhang), No. 24 Cibulkova (lost to Kanepi) and No. 31 Makarova (lost to Begu).
  10. The seeds that were eliminated from the men’s tournament are: No. 9 Sock (lost to Sugyta), No. 11 Anderson (lost to Edmund), No. 16 Isner (lost to Ebden), No. 18 Pouille (lost to Bemelmans) and No. 27 Kohlschreiber (lost to Nishioka).
  11. This is the first time since June 23, 1997 that no Williams’ sisters made it to the second round. The last time that it happened was at Wimbledon in 1997, when No. 59-ranked Venus lost 4-6 6-2 6-4 in the first round to No. 91-ranked Magdalena Grzybowska of Poland and Serena didn’t play. Bencic’s win against Venus at this year’s Australian Open was certainly inspired by Roger Federer, with whom Belinda captured the Hopman Cup ten days ago. As a matter of fact, Federer’s parents Robert and Lynett were in Belinda’s box during the match.
  12. Both male players representing Belgium are still in the tournament. While Goffin’s presence is certainly not a surprise, Bemelmans almost lost in the qualies and barely made his way into the main draw. On day one he caused an upset defeating No. 18-seed Pouille.
  13. The three best and most talked about players of the top half of the draw lost 16 games in 9 sets: Nadal defeated Estrella Burgos 6-1, 6-1, 6-1, Dimitrov prevailed over Novak 6-3, 6-2, 6-1 and Kyrgios cruised against Dutra Silva 6-1, 6-2, 6-4.
  14. Juan Martin del Potro is back in the top ten for the first time since August 2014. After being sidelined for long stretches with multiple injuries and surgeries, at some point his ranking dropped to No. 1045. The Argentine doesn’t have many points to defend until Roland Garros, so his ranking will most likely continue to improve in the next few months.
  15. Despite Kei Nishikori’s absence, the Japanese players are doing some damage in the men’s draw. Nishioka defeated No. 27-seed Kohlschreiber and Sugita upset No. 8-seed Sock.
  16. While Japan is gearing up for an enthralling Davis Cup tie against Italy, Nishioka mentioned that he will start studying Andreas Seppi’s game both at the Australian Open and on YouTube.
  17. If Japan’s No. 3 player Taro Daniel wins against the French veteran Bennetau, the Italian Davis Cup captain Barazzutti will most likely have to light a candle before the Italy vs. Japan clash.
  18. Julia Goerges has always been one of the most attractive girls on the WTA Tour. Now that she’s certainly not a little girl anymore, she has also become a great player. She is currently on a 15-match winning streak and on the verge of breaking into the top ten.
  19. Ying-Ying Duan of China was the first winner of this year’s Australian Open defeating 6-0, 6-1 Duque-Marino of Colombia in 51 minutes.
  20. Everybody is talking about 15-year-old prodigy Marta Kostyuk, who gained a sensational win against world No. 27 Shuai Peng in her Grand Slam main draw debut.
  21. Sam Stosur played in 16 editions of the Australian Open losing 6 times in the first round, 4 times in the second, 4 times in the third and twice in the fourth. It is a horrible record for a Grand Slam champion and former top ten player in her home Slam.
  22. Today the serve might be the most important shot in tennis, but both ace leaders in the first day of the competition were upset by lower ranked opponents. Despite 35 and 24 aces respectively, both Kevin Anderson and John Isner were sent home.
  23. Speaking of Kevin Anderson – one of the weakest Grand Slam finalists in history, he joked with American reporters in his post-match press conference. “It’s a good thing that I haven’t received my American citizenship yet, otherwise you would have lost another player today,” he said.
  24. The much anticipated Next-Gen clash between Tsitsipas and Shapovalov was a massacre in the Canadian’s favor. Shapovalov was impressive throughout the entire match, while Tsitsipas never really showed up besides a few good points in the third set.
  25. After beating rising star Hyeon Chung in a warm-up tournament last week, David Ferrer stated that his playing days are far from over. The Spaniard faced the young Russian Andrei Rublev in the first round of the Australian Open and ironically. His playing days might not be over until he probably turns 40, but his current form is certainly not looking good.
  26. After winning almost every junior tournament in France, Corentin Moutet didn’t impress against Andreas Seppi of Italy. The young Frenchman smashed his racket a few times and acted like a spoiled brat during the match.
  27. Despite a few doubts about a recurring knee injury, Rafa Nadal easily prevailed 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 over Estrella Burgos. Not even uncle Toni could have drawn an easier first round opponent for Rafa.
  28. Sloane Stephens’ post-match press conference was a snore until I reminded her that her interview after her win at the US Open was the most hilarious and entertaining I’ve witnessed in recent years. At that point, she became more relaxed and interesting to listen to. Christopher Clarey of the New York Times personally thanked me for saving his day.
  29. At 37 years of age, Francesca Schiavone lost the battle of French Open champions against 20-year-old Jelena Ostapenko, despite a 4-1 lead in the second set.
  30. Novak Djokovic – who is the president of the ATP council –  organized a meeting with fellow players to discuss the fact that the International Tennis Federation is making too much money from the Grand Slam tournaments without equally distributing it amongst the players.

(Article translation provided by T&L Global – Translation & Language Solutions –  www.t-lglobal.com )

 

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