TENNIS AO15 – Standing ovation and round-court Hi-fives for Kokkinakis, on court throw-up in a five-setter for McHale and eight seeded players – including Ivanovic – disappearing from the women’s tournament at round one. From Melbourne Robbie Cappuccio
AO 2015: Interviews, Results, Order of Play, Draws
A great start for the Australian Open with record attendance of 71,171 which sets a new record for day 1.
A lovely sunny day with top of 28C and a little breeze: this is the present Melbourne gives to the public for the opening of the 103rd edition of the Australian Open. And the Aussie crowd gives back with a record attendance (for day 1) of 71,171.
So what happened in the happy slam today?
Lower part of draw playing today, with easy wins for Federer, Nadal, Murray, Berdych and Dimitrov.
But let’s start with my compatriots: four Italians out of five got to the second round. The only one stopping at round one is Karin Knapp, who fiercely fought, but nothing could do against seed n.3 Simona Halep. Easy wins for the remaining two Italians – Errani and Vinci – who dispatched in around one hour Min and Jovanovski respectively.
Simone Bolelli won in four sets over Juan Monaco, starting slowly, but increasing pace from the third set. He will now face Roger Federer in the second round. Seppi – the marathon man – won yet another five setter with Istomin building cobwebs around the opponent and then hitting with drop shots.
Let’s move to my other compatriots (the perks of dual citizenship: you get more chances at winning).
A total of thirteen Aussies played today, of which three former winners of the Junior tournament. Tomic (Junior Australian Open winner of 2008) won in four, whereas Saville (winner of 2012) lost in straight sets.
Sam Groth showed consistency and won in 3 with 24 aces, Matosevic and Duckworth showed gut and heart and both won in five. Millman did not repeat the miracle of the first set against Federer in Brisbane and lost in straight sets, as did Jordan Thompson.
The Special Ks Kokkinakis-Kyrgios, both offered spectacular matches which kept all Australians awake till late. Aussie favourite Nick Kyrgios (Junior winner of 2013) won a five setter with Delbonis, overcoming his back problems which required a medical time out: Aussie Aussie Aussie – Oi Oi Oi !
The most exciting match, however, was by Thanasi Kokkinakis who battled with [11]Gulbis for over four hours, winning the fifth set 8-6 and then running around the court to hi-5 the Aussie fans. You cannot get that at Wimbledon: this is Australia, this is Melbourne, mate.
The women could not replicate the performance, with only Jarka Gajdosova keeping her momentum going and landing a win in straight sets to get through the second round at her 10th attempt (yay!), whereas the other Australians lost: Gavrilova in three set, Sanders in two and Arina Rodionova was bashed by Puig including a bagel in the opening set.
Apart from the Australians, the most represented nations today were France with 12 players, Russia with 10 (but 7 losses) and Czech Republic with 9 (6 through the second round).
The only retirement today was Robredo, after only 5 games against Roger-Vasselin (taking home good $30,000 anyway, for 15 minutes plus warm-up).
The first player to disappear from the Australian open was the young Swiss Belinda Bencic, which collected a total of 3 games only against Julia Goerges. Her Australian Open could be extremely short as the first round of the doubles will be against Hingis-Pennetta.
Eight seeded players are already out of the women’s single tournament:
[5] Ivanovic, who since her Roland Garros victory of 2008 reached the quarter finals only twice (last year in Melbourne and in 2012 at the US Open), lost to Hradecka 6-1 3-6 2-6
[9] Kerber faded in the third set with Begu 4-6 6-0 1-6
[16] Safarova in a dramatic final against Shvedova 4-6 6-2 6-8
[17] Suarez-Navarro dispatched by Carina Witthoeft 1-6 3-6
[23] Pavlyuchenkova 6-4 3-6 3-6 to Wickmayer
[27] Kuznetsova in straight sets with Garcia 4-6 2-6
[28] Lisicki, who is maybe still thinking of the Wimbledon final of 201, lost 6-4 4-6 2-6 to Mladenovic
[32] Bencic who got stood up by her coach, lost 2-6 1-6 to Goerges
A short adventure down under for the two rising Croatian stars: Coric lost in four sets with Chardy after winning the first, and Konjuh (Junior single and double winner of 2013) lost in straight sets to Rybarikova.
At his fifth attempt since 2011, David Goffin finally gets to the second round. Let’s hope this year he will stay injury free.
The most dramatic match was undoubtedly the one Christina McHale won over Stephanie Foretz. The third set lasted 1:51 with Mchale vomiting on court at 4-4 in the final set. After a short break to clean up the mess, the match resumed with McHale eventually winning 12-10.
