Australian Dayne Kelly ignored a ranking difference of nearly three hundred places to knock out top seed Go Soeda in the Burnie Challenger. Kelly, did not drop a set in qualifying, and managed to take out the top seed 64 62.
Second seed Jason Jung had not played since September 2016. He went down to former Wimbledon Junior Champion Luke Saville 26 61 64.
A shock that was perhaps a little more surprising was that which saw Blaz Rola defeat Andrew Whittington 67 64 64. Whittington had been active and in-form through the Australasian swing, but went down to the Slovenian in two hours and forty-five minutes.
All other seeds in action over Monday night were successful. (4) Mohamed Safwat defeated (WC) Bradley Mousley 76 62. (6) Noah Rubin defeated countryman Mitchell Krueger 62 76. (7) Alexander Bublik, who knocked Lucas Pouille out of the Australian Open, continued his fine form, getting off the mark in Burnie with a 63 75 win over Yuya Kibi. (8) Akira Santillan defeated Australian-born Brit Brydan Klein 63 36 62.
Other notable matches saw the in-form Omar Jasika defeat Daniel Nguyen 63 64. Jasika made the final in Happy Valley before losing in the Australian Open first round to David Ferrer.
Wildcard Alex Bolt has continually struggled with injury over the past few seasons, but the Aussie is a quality player at this level. He defeated American Evan King 76 76.
Riccardo Bellotti recovered from a slow start against Max Purcell. The teenage Australian had raced into a lead, but Bellotti lost just four more games, eventually winning 26 61 63.
Blake Mott defeated qualifier Greg Jones 60 75. Christopher O’Connell defeated another qualifier James Frawley 62 26 60. Dmitry Popko defeated Pedja Krstin 61 64.
With the top three seeds already out it opens the door for a number of players. Young Japanese Akira Santillan has a clear field in the top quarter with Soeda out. Matthew Barton and Omar Jasika face each other in the second round, and the winner of that will be heavily favoured to make the semis after Whittington’s early exit. Alexander Bublik will be the favourite in the bottom quarter after Jung’s exit, whilst Noah Rubin can not be discounted either.
