It’s only one day into the Australian Open and already local fans have something to celebrate, after 17-year-old Alex De Minaur – making his grand slam debut – won a five-set thriller over Gerald Melzer.
De Minaur took a tie-breaker in the fourth set to stay alive, before dominating the fifth set 6-1 to claim a memorable, ground-breaking victory.
He now has a huge challenge ahead of him in the second round, where he will come up against 31st seed Sam Querrey.
It was a good day for Australia. Bernard Tomic dropped only seven games on his way to a straight-sets victory over Brazil’s Thomaz Bellucci.
Clearly taking that as a challenge was Nick Kyrgios, who bested Gastao Elias with great pace, conceding just five games.
Ashleigh Barty’s return to the sport continued at a good clip and she knocked out German Annika Beck in straight sets, 6-4, 7-5.
Jaimee Fourlis defeated American Anna Tatishvili in straight sets and now takes on world No.10 Svetlana Kuzentsova in the second round.
It wasn’t all good news though, as Destanee Aiava showed fight against Mona Barthel but was evenutally beaten in straight sets, while James Duckworth and Sam Groth were also eliminated.
However the biggest surprise of the day was the exit of No.4 four seed Simona Halep, knocked over in straight sets by 24-year-old unseeded American Shelby Rogers.
Halep was among eight seeds whose tournament came to an early end, though she was the only one inside the top ten.
No.1 seed Angelique Kerber lost the second set of her match against Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko 5-7, but dominated the third to progress.
Roger Federer conceded the second set of his battle with Austria’s Jurgen Melzer, but dropped only four games in the last two sets of the match on his way to victory.
Jo Wilfried-Tsonga dropped a set against Thiago Monteiro of Brazil in a tiebreaker, but was able to win the match in four.
Jerzy Janowiczwon the first two sets of his match against seventh seed Marin Cilic, but the Croatian rallied from there to concede only seven more games on his way to victory.
Kei Nishikori also went to five sets in his battle with Andrey Kuznetsov, losing the first and fourth sets in tight finishes, but took the other three relatively easily.
In a day of close calls for the elite, Stan Wawrinka also needed five sets to triumph over Slovakian Martin Klizan – 4-6, 6-4, 7-5, 4-6, 6-4.
High seeds Andy Murray, Tomas Berdych, Venus Williams, Garbine Muguruza, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Elina Svitolina all progressed into the second round with straight-sets demolitions of their opponents.
Men
Lucas Pouille (16), Pablo Cuevas (22), Albert Ramos Viñolas (26)
Women
Simona Halep (4), Roberta Vinci (15), Kiki Bertens (19), Daria Kasatkina (23), Laura Siegmund (26)
Men
James Duckworth, Sam Groth
Women
Destanee Aiava
Men
Novak Djokovic $2.62
Andy Murray $2.45
Stan Wawrinka $14
Rafael Nadal $15
Milos Raonic $19
Women
Serena Williams $3.75
Angelique Kerber $4.50
Karolina Pliskova $5.50
Garbine Muguruza $11
Johanna Konta $17
Men
Florian Mayer vs Rafael Nadal (approx 2:30pm AEDT)
Fernando Verdasco vs Novak Djokovic (7pm AEDT)
Women
Belinda Bencic vs Serena Williams (approx 12:30pm AEDT)
Heather Watson vs Samantha Stosur (approx 2:30pm AEDT)
Daria Gavrilova vs Naomi Broady (approx 9pm AEDT)
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