Djokovic, Nadal and Serena Williams all overcame dangerous opponents with ease. Day two also gave us the longest match in Australian Open history by number of games played.
Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic kicked off their 2017 Grand Slam campaign against very tricky first round opponents on day two of the Australian Open. After saving a whopping five match points against Fernando Verdasco in Doha ten days ago, Djokovic was perfectly aware of the challenge presented by the Spaniard and came out off the gates sprinting to a 6-1 first set lead. He got a little distracted in the second set, but he quickly regained control of the match and convincingly eased into round two with a straight set win. Despite dropping serve twice, Djokovic put on a solid display throughout the entire match.
Fernando Verdasco represented a seemingly tougher test for Djokovic than Nadal’s first round opponent – the German Florian Mayer, whose unusually unpredictable tennis can nonetheless be very deceitful. Rafa never dropped serve in the match and talked about how he was particularly pleased by his 39 winners, “many more than I usually produce,” he told my Spanish colleagues in his post-match press conference. “In the off-season I worked extremely hard to have my powerful forehand back, and we also tried to improve the speed of my second serve with Carlos (Moya). Today my serve averaged 160 kph (almost 100 mph), which is something that rarely happened in the past. I think that it will be more difficult for my opponents to attack my serve,” he claimed.
Serena Williams also roared into round two without dropping a set and never looked in serious danger against Belinda Bencic. Karolina Pliskova – last year’s US Open finalist – remained undefeated in 2017 with a comfortable win over Sorribes Tormo.
After eight casualties on day one, the first round matches came to a conclusion in day two while three more seeded players left the tournament earlier than expected. In the men’s event, No. 28 Feliciano Lopez of Spain lost to the Italian Fabio Fognini; in the women’s, No. 18 Samantha Stosur – who never performed well at her home tournament – was defeated by Heather Watson of Great Britain and No. 25 Timea Babos lost a close two-setter to the American Nicole Gibbs.
Stosur’s defeat made headlines all over Australia. The former US Open champion and world No. 4 only reached the round of 16 twice in fifteen attempts at the Australian Open and spoke about how she always felt psychologically uncomfortable when playing in front of her home crowd. Two-time Grand Slam champion and former world No. 1 Amelie Mauresmo of France faced the same problems when playing at Roland Garros. Besides openly identifying as lesbians, both players have always been amazons with a fragile heart.
A few established tennis countries are left without any representation after only two days of competition. The Netherlands was hoping that Robin Haase could upset Alexander Zverev – the youngest seed in the men’s draw – but the Dutchman ended up losing a close five set match. One of the most entertaining matches of the day saw Yanina Wickkmayer of Belgium squander nine match points against Lucie Safarova, who is now the ace leader in the women’s event with sixteen aces, followed by Alexandrova with ten and Makarova and Osaka both with nine.
I was quite surprised when I discovered that Andreas Seppi was at some point the ace leader in the men’s tournament until late last night. He fired 34 aces in his first match, more than Isner, Kachanov, Querrey, Cilic, Hakys and the giant Opelka, who stands at 6’11” and weighs 220 lbs. David Goffin of Belgium – who is 5’11” – looked like a dwarf in comparison with the American giant during their first round encounter. David, however, managed to beat Goliath once again. Goffin saved a couple of crucial break points deep in the fifth set and closed the match after winning 14 of the last 15 points. Being taller and stronger doesn’t necessarily pay off if you are less consistent than your opponent. In his post-match press conference, Goffin explained how happy he was about his low unforced errors percentage; he only committed twenty-three during the long five set match. If truth be told, he should be thankful that his opponent didn’t even give him the opportunity to make unforced errors. Opelka played in fact “hit-and-miss” tennis for the entire match.
The other giant Ivo Karlovic defeated the Argentine Zeballos 6-7 3-6 7-5 6-2 22-20 and gave us the longest match in Australian Open history by number of games played. A total of 84 games in 5 hours and 15 minutes. With 75 aces, Karlovic quickly dethroned Seppi in the ace leaders’ category. Zeballos only had one break point opportunity in the entire fifth set, precisely at 10-all.
It is important to mention that 84 games are not a record outside the Open era. In 1970 the American Dennis Ralston – who later became Chris Evert’s coach – defeated John Newcombe 19-17, 20-18, 4-6, 6-3. Only 4 sets for 93 games. If the two had gone to a fifth set, they could have probably threatened the record established by Isner and Mahut with their legendary 70-68 set at Wimbledon. While the Karlovic-Zeballos match set an Australian Open record by number of games, the extraordinary 2012 final between Djokovic and Nadal still remains the longest match by time played with 5 hours and 53 minutes.
(Article translation provided by T&L Global – Translation & Language Solutions – www.t-global.com )
