De Minaur Advances after Unfortunate Retirement
Alex De Minaur is far and away Australia’s best chance at a homegrown champion at this year’s Australia Open. The 24-year-old is ranked tenth in the world and playing exceptional tennis right now.
He was given a difficult opening round matchup with former grand slam finalist Milos Raonic. The Canadian has been battling injuries over the past few seasons and as such hasn’t been able to get near the form he once had.
Still, he has one of the best serves on tour coupled with a booming forehand which make him a formidable opponent for anyone. These skills were on full display in their opening set.
Raonic put nine aces and 21 winners past De Minaur as he claimed the opening set 7-6. It was the beginning of the second set when Raonic seemingly started feeling less than 100%.
De Minaur took advantage of Raonic’s slower serving and poor mobility as he would gain a break and win the set 6-3. With De Minaur’s level increasing and Raonic’s body failing him, it seemed like the match was set to become very lopsided.
Before it got to that point however, with De Minaur up 2-0 in the third Raonic was forced to retire due to a hip flexor injury.
De Minaur now moves on to play Matteo Arnaldi who ousted Aussie Adam Walton in round one. The draw has opened up nicely for De Minaur with Nicolas Jarry’s opening round loss. De Minaur will not see a ranked opponent until the fourth round in which he is set to match up with Andrey Rublev.
Popyrin and Thompson win their Battles of Australians
Alexei Popyrin was matched up with fellow countrymen Marc Polmans in the opening round and handled him with ease winning the match in three straight sets. Popyrin now has the daunting task of playing Novak Djokovic at the Australian Open in round two.
The other all Aussie affair featured Aleksandar Vukic and Jordan Thompson. This matchup was much closer as the men treated fans to a riveting five-setter. In the end, it was Thompson who found a break in the matches final game to take set number five 6-4 and in turn the match.
Stefanos Tsitsipas will be Thompson’s opponent in round two.
Storm Hunter Goes from Qualifier into Round Two
Over on the women’s side the only winner thus far has been Storm Hunter. After working her way through qualifying, Hunter defeated Sara Errani in two sets.
She is now set to battle Laura Siegemund in round two.
Other Round One Results
As previously mentioned, Adam Walton, Marc Polmans, and Aleksandar Vukic all came up short in their opening round matches.
Along with them, Dane Sweeny, James Duckworth, Jon Kubler, and Rinky Hijikata all dropped hard fought five setters.
Omar Jasika fell in three straight sets to Hubert Hurkacz.
Chris O’Connell was able to win his five-set war against Christian Garin and will face Ben Shelton in round two.
On the women’s side, Taylah Preston fell in two straight sets to Elina Svitolina and Daria Saville dropped a tough three setter to Magdalena Frech.
Kokkinakis, Tomljanovic, and others set to take the Court Shortly
Crowd Favourite Thanasi Kokkinakis will begin his Australian Open very shortly as will Ajla Tomljanovic. Both are sure to have large contingents of fans cheering them to victory.
James McCabe, Max Purcell, Kimberly Birrell, and Olivia Gadecki will also see their tournaments begin today.
