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An overjoyed Olivia Gadecki was almost lost for words after living up to the hype to be the first home hope to advance to the Australian Open second round.
The emerging star vindicated her wildcard entry with a rousing 7-5 6-1 victory over teenage qualifier Polina Kudermetova on Monday.
Mentored by retired reigning champion Ash Barty, Gadecki was making her much-anticipated grand slam main-draw debut after missing the entire summer last year after declining to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
“She (Barty) sent me a text after my match, which really meant a lot,” Gadecki said. “I’m sure everyone kind of knows she’s always been in my corner, and I’m so lucky to have her. Whenever I need advice or anything, I’m always able to contact her.”
Gadecki’s decision to sit out the 2022 Open came after she’d burst onto the international stage with a stunning victory over 2020 champion Sofia Kenin at the 2021 Phillip Island Trophy event at Melbourne Park.
The prodigy backed up that win with a rapid rise up the rankings under esteemed coach David Taylor, Samantha Stosur’s long-time former ally and mentor of greats including Martina Hingis and Naomi Osaka.
“It’s definitely a relief, but I knew what my decision entailed and I totally respect everyone’s opinion and personal choice,” Gadecki said of her Melbourne Park breakthrough. “I’m just grateful to be here.”
While fans have had to wait to see Gadecki in action at her home slam, the 20-year-old certainly didn’t disappoint after finally making her debut. She seized the opening set against Kudermetova with the only break of the set, nailing a booming backhand down the line in the 12th game to draw rapturous applause from spectators on Court 8.
The adrenaline surge triggered a run of six straight games won for Gadecki as the young gun powered to her first grand slam triumph in 76 minutes.
“I actually can’t believe it. Wow, I’m speechless,” Gadecki beamed. “It’s such an amazing crowd, my home slam, my first-ever main-draw grand slam win. I mean, a girl can only dream.”
Gadecki crunched seven aces, 19 winners and conceded only nine points on serve and will take on exciting Ukrainian talent Marta Kostyuk on Wednesday.
Kostyuk, the world No.61, claimed the first seeded scalp of the tournament, eliminating 28th-seeded American Amanda Anisimova 6-3 6-4.
Olivia Gadecki plays a backhand. (Photo by Mackenzie Sweetnam/Getty Images)
While Gadecki marched on, fellow wildcard Talia Gibson bowed out with a 6-3 6-4 loss to French qualifier Clara Burel.
Jason Kubler has continued his stunning career renaissance with the late-blooming former junior world No.1 finally notching his maiden Australian Open win.
Kubler outclassed Argentine Sebastian Baez – a player ranked 40 spots above him at No.44 in the world – 6-4 6-4 6-4 on Monday to join fellow Australian Olivia Gadecki in the second round.
“I’m just so happy that I’ve been able to perform in my home country. Super special,” he said.
“I got a little run last year in the mixed doubles but hopefully this year I can do something special in the singles.”
The watershed win comes 13 years after Kubler debuted at Melbourne Park as a 16-year-old prodigy described as a “right-handed Rafael Nadal” before a succession of knee injuries threatened to cruel his career.
“It’s the first time I’ve won here in singles so a bit of nerves but also he’s a great opponent and he’s a great player,” Kubler said.
“But I was able to put it together and win those important points. Luckily I was able to serve quite well.
“So super happy to get through.”
Lleyton Hewitt had dubbed the 29-year-old a “dangerous floater” in Melbourne after Kubler upset top-40 rivals Dan Evans and Albert Ramos-Vinolas at the season-opening United Cup in Sydney.
His latest victory presents the one-time self-confessed tennis battler with a golden opportunity to live up to Hewitt’s billing against Russian 18th seed Karen Khachanov on Wednesday.
With little to lose, Kubler is guaranteed yet another rankings rise into the world’s top 80 for the first time even if he’s defeated by the 2022 US Open semi-finalist.
But after reaching the second week at Wimbledon and being Australia’s last man standing at the French Open in a breakout grand slam season last year, Kubler is hopeful of bringing down Khachanov.
“Honestly I’m very happy that I’ve done 18 months now injury free so I hope I continue that,” he said.
“I want to go out there and try my best and, if the opportunity comes, I can take it.
“That’s sort of how I’ve been playing the last probably 12 months – try as hard as I can and if anything comes up, I’m going to take it.”
Veteran Australian John Millman has cashed in on his Melbourne Park wildcard, delivering a typical five-set marathon victory over Switzerland’s Marc-Andrea Huesler to reach the second round.
The 33-year-old twice trailed Huesler by a set but fought back before kicking away for a 6-7 (8-10) 7-5 6-7 (2-7) 6-2 6-3 win, prevailing in four hours and six minutes.
It sets up a likely second-second round show-stopper against two-time Australian Open finalist Daniil Medvedev on Wednesday, with the star Russian taking on American Marcus Giron on Monday night.
Millman, who required a wildcard after falling to No.140 in the rankings, joins fellow Australian Jason Kubler in reaching the second round of the men’s draw on the opening day.
It is the sixth time Millman has reached the second round at his home major, in his ninth Melbourne Park campaign and 30th grand slam.
A scratchy Rafael Nadal has survived a rocky first-round encounter against young Brit Jack Draper to keep his Australian Open defence alive.
Struggling to find form, the top-seeded Spaniard overcame a cramp-ridden Draper to post a 7-5 2-6 6-4 6-1 in their their Rod Laver Arena showdown on Monday.
Draper was unable to move freely for most of the fourth set, allowing Nadal to run away with the match.
Nadal was relieved to find a way against the world No.38, who he predicted would have a long and bright future at Melbourne Park.
“If we put into perspective all the situation I went through in the last six months, it’s a positive start,” Nadal said.
“He’s one of the toughest opponents I could meet as a seed.
“The last couple of matches haven’t been too easy for me and hopefully I can keep going from this victory.”
Nadal, who only won one of his previous six matches leading into the Open, predicted a tough opening clash with the 21-year-old, who is of the rising stars on the ATP tour.
And the 36-year-old, who battled a run of injuries in 2022, was not wrong, although his own unforced error count of 46 contributed to the tense affair.
Nadal also wasn’t helped when a ball boy bizarrely took the wrong racquet midway through the first set for restringing, leaving the veteran digging into his bag for a replacement.
After burning through the second set, it looked like Draper might cause a major upset but the youngster started to cramp early in the third, which took the pace off his service game.
Nadal broke Draper in the fourth game to take a 3-1 lead, but the Brit broke back in the eighth to level at 4-4, before the Spaniard kicked away.
After an outfit change, Draper looked refreshed as he broke Nadal’s opening service game but the world No.2, who took over the top seeding after the withdrawal of injured countryman Carlos Alcaraz, hit straight back.
Draper’s leg cramps then returned leaving him unable to run, with Nadal, who is looking to extend his all-time grand slam record of 22 titles, steaming through the final set to wrap up the win.
He will face American Mackenzie McDonald in round two.
(with AAP)
Jannik Sinner is the first big-name seed through to the Australian Open second round following a thumping win over returning former semi-finalist Kyle Edmund.
The world No.16 crushed Edmund 6-4 6-0 6-2 in less than two hours at Melbourne Park on Monday.
With Australian super coach Darren Cahill in his corner, Sinner showed no mercy against Edmund, who is still in the infancy of a comeback from a knee injury that sidelined the 2018 Open semi-finalist for 22 months.
He broke the Brit seven times, dropped his own serve only once and clubbed 24 clean winners to Edmund’s 10.
Sinner returned to Melbourne after a breakout season at the grand slams in 2022, reaching the quarter-finals of the Australian Open, Wimbledon and US Open and also the second week in Paris.
Standing in the 21-year-old’s path to another last-eight run could be third seed Stefanos Tsitsipas in the fourth round.
Next up for Sinner on Wednesday, though, will be either Frenchman Gregoire Barrere or Tomas Martin Etcheverry of Argentina.
Tsitsipas opens his campaign on Monday night against Frenchman Quentin Halys.
Plain-speaking American Danielle Collins has overcome an injury scare and an unheralded opponent playing “good and lucky” tennis to edge through to the second round of the Australian Open.
Collins enjoyed a career-defining run to the 2022 final at Melbourne Park before falling to Ash Barty, less than a year after undergoing surgery for endometriosis to have a cyst removed.
She came into the opening grand slam of 2023 battling a knee complaint and was forced to call for a medical timeout midway through the first set on Monday against Anna Kalinskaya.
The Russian had bowed out in the opening round in her three previous Open campaigns, but for long periods of Monday’s clash she looked likely to break her duck.
In the end, Collins prevailed 7-5 5-7 6-4 in a match lasting a tick over three hours.
“I’ve played a couple of these matches recently, and didn’t pull out the win,” said the 29-year-old. “Any time you’re on the court playing three-hour matches, you especially want to win, putting in that much effort.
“I just needed to push through the hurt a little bit. I definitely had a scare in the first set with the injury, which is not what you want to be dealing with in the first round of a tournament. I was able to work through it and the physios were really helping me.”
Collins is something of an open book on the court and several times in the nerve-racking final set she struggle to hide her frustration as Kalinskaya painted the lines with a string of winners.
“The finish, it was tough,” she said. “There’s a saying, right, ‘you’d rather be lucky than good’.
“Well, she was good and she was lucky. She was playing some really, really good tennis at a super-high level, challenging me and pushing me back. She didn’t give me many free points, that’s for sure. So I really had to find my game within that and bring my targets in a bit.”
The 13th-seeded Collins’ second-round opponent will be Czech Karolina Muchova, who trounced Ukrainian qualifer Lesia Tsurenko 6-2 6-1.
World No.3 Jessica Pegula has embraced the opportunity to make the fastest of starts, stamping her title credentials on day one of the Australian Open.
The 28-year-old American was the day’s first winner at Melbourne Park, needing just 59 minutes to see off the challenge of Romania’s Jaqueline Cristian 6-0 6-1.
Pegula won the opening nine games on Margaret Court Arena and sealed the lopsided victory with an ace.
Her second-round opponent will be Belarusian Aliaksandra Sasnovich, who ousted 15-year-old Czech wunderkind Brenda Fruhvirtova 7-5 6-2.
Pegula underlined her status as a genuine chance to win a maiden grand slam crown in Melbourne by crushing world No.1 and title favourite Iga Swiatek in straight sets at the United Cup in Sydney in early January.
She reached the quarter-finals at her previous two Open campaigns and was beaten by eventual champ Ash Barty last year.
“I was really happy I was first on today,” she said.
“(Rather than) waiting around at the site for that first round I’m more like ‘let’s just get it over with’.
“For all players, every round is hard, but first round, especially playing a girl I didn’t know, I’ve never played her before, never practised with her, don’t know her much.
“For me, it’s just like the waiting around, the build-up, I’m usually freaking out in practice a little bit and everything starts to bother me a little bit more.”
Seventh seed and fellow American Coco Gauff did it tougher, needing seven match points in a marathon final game before overcoming Czech Katerina Siniakova 6-1 6-4.
“I’m really pleased with that,” said the 18-year-old Gauff.
“Katerina is a fighter. I knew that she was going to fight to the last point and she proved that today.”
Gauff is unbeaten in 2023, having started her year with a title triumph at the ASB Classic in Auckland.
The teenager’s win set up a blockbuster second-round encounter with British darling Emma Raducanu, a 6-3 6-2 winner over Germany’s Tamara Korpatsch.
Former world No.1 Victoria Azarenka won her clash against another ex-Australian Open champ, American Sofia Kenin, 6-4 7-6 (7-3).
“I don’t look at what happened in the past too much,” said the 33-year-old Belarusian, who saluted at Melbourne Park in 2012 and 2013.
“I get a lot of questions about ‘well, how did you feel when you won here, etc’ and it’s very hard for me to tell, because mostly what you remember is good memories, right?
“My road to the trophies was far away from being smooth.
“So I try not to really focus on that (and) see how I feel day by day, because that keeps me a little bit more grounded, a little bit more sane.”
Greek sixth seed Maria Sakkari and 2022 finalist Danielle Collins also moved safely into the second round.
Sakkari outclassed China’s Yue Yuan 6-1 6-4 to book a meeting on Wednesday with Russian qualifier Diana Shnaider.
Runner-up to Ash Barty last year, 13th-seeded Collins scraped past Anna Kalinskaya 7-5 5-7 6-4 in an early scare lasting more than three hours.
But her 28th-seeded American compatriot Amanda Anisimova became the first seeded casualty of the tournament, bowing out 6-3 6-4 to Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk.
No.25 Marie Bouskova from the Czech Republic also fell 6-2 6-4 at the first hurdle to Canada’s 2019 US Open champ Bianca Andreescu.
© AAP
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