Jan. 18 (UPI) — Stefanos Tsitsipas and Aryna Sabalenka were among the top-seeded players to win Tuesday at the 2022 Australian Open. Sofia Kenin and Coco Gauff, the top Americans in the tournament, each were eliminated in the first round.
The first round of the tournament started Monday in Melbourne, but aired Sunday, Monday and Tuesday in the United States because Australian time is 16 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time.
Gauff was the first seeded player to exit the Grand Slam. The No. 18 seed lost in straight sets to Qiang Wang on Monday at Margaret Court Arena.
“It obviously didn’t go my way,” Gauff told reporters Monday. “She played really well and I didn’t play my best tennis. I’m going to learn from it and try to bounce back.”
Kenin, seeded No. 11, lost to fellow American Madison Keys in straight sets a few hours later. Kenin, the 2020 Australian Open champion, converted just one break point and totaled 27 unforced errors in the 91-minute match.
“Every first round is tough, but when you have to go against a Grand Slam champion, it’s never easy,” Keys said. “I’m just happy with how I played and happy to be in the second round.”
No. 1 Ash Barty of Australia was the top overall seed to advance, due to Serbian Novak Djokovic’s much-publicized exit from the men’s draw. Barty, the women’s favorite, needed just 54 minutes on Monday to dispatch Ukrainian qualifier Lesia Tsurenko 6-0, 6-1.
No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, No. 3 Garbine Muguruza of Spain, No. 4 Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic, No. 5 Maria Sakkari of Greece were among the other top women’s players to advance through Monday and Tuesday’s first-round matches.
No. 13 Naomi Osaka of Japan, the defending champion, and No. 22 Belinda Bencic of Switzerland, the 2020 Summer Games women’s singles gold medalist, also advanced to the second round. No. 16 Angelique Kerber of Germany and No. 20 Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic were among the top women’s players upset in the first round.
No. 21 Jessica Pegula, Madison Brengle, Bernarda Pera, Amanda Anisimova, Hailey Baptiste, Alison Riske and Danielle Collins were the American women who advanced out of the first round.
No. 2 Daniil Medvedev of Russia was the top-seeded men’s player to move on. He needed nearly two hours Monday to beat Henri Laaksonen of Switzerland in straight sets. The win set up a second-round match with Australian Nick Kyrgios.
No. 3 Alexander Zverev of Germany, No. 4 Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece, No. 5 Andrey Rublev of Russia and No. 6 Rafael Nadal of Spain were among the other top men’s players to advance to the second round with straight-sets victories. Nadal and Zverev advanced Monday. Tsitsipas and Rublev advanced Tuesday.
No. 20 Taylor Fritz, No. 23 Reilly Opelka, Frances Tiafoe, Sebastian Korda, Stefan Kozlov, Maxime Cressy, Steve Johnson, Tommy Paul and Mackenzie McDonald were the Americans who advanced to the second round in the men’s singles circuit.
Cressy edged fellow American John Isner, the No. 22 seed, in a five-set thriller. That match lasted four hours and 10 minutes and ended Tuesday in Melbourne.
The first wave of second-round matches for the 2022 Australian Open air from 7 to 9 p.m. EST Tuesday on ESPN+. The round continues from 9 to 11:30 p.m. on ESPN2 and from 11:30 p.m. Tuesday to 7 a.m. Wednesday on ESPN+.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.