Venus and Halep Sent Packing in Melbourne

The second day of the Australian Open saw a couple of top women fall in the opening round, as second-seeded Romanian Simona Halep and eighth-seeded American Venus Williams were both eliminated in straight sets.

Venus was up first and took on a tricky first-round opponent in Great Britain’s Johanna Konta, whom had battled Venus to three-sets in last year’s Wuhan quarterfinals. And Konta took it to Venus early and was by far the more aggressive player, while Venus didn’t look her best moving around the court.

Konta would break for a 2-1 lead in the opening set and would open up a 5-2 first set advantage, and shut down a late Venus rally to win the first in 41 minutes.

And in the second, Konta completely dominated the action. She raced out to a 5-0 lead, and despite Venus flirting with a comeback to bring it to 2-5, closed out the American for the 6-4, 6-2 win.

“I’m very satisfied with how I dealt with the situation. It was hot out there. I was playing an incredibly great player. That’s no secret,” said Konta. “Obviously, there are nerves. I just really focused on my breathing and tried to stay very present. Just staying with the work at hand, because it’s never over until you’re shaking hands.”

Konta will square off with Saisai Zheng of China in the second round. Zheng knocked off Germany’s Carina Witthoeft 6-1, 6-2 in her first-round matchup.

World number two and second-seed Simona Halep was ousted from Melbourne in just one hour and 18 minutes, as China’s Shuai Zhang defeated the Romanian 6-4, 6-3.

“I am excited about today, I played so well,” said Zhang after the first Grand Slam victory of her career. “[My] first win—I’m so happy, so excited. I want to say thank you to my parents, my coach. Thank you everybody for supporting me.”

Zhang played like a player with nothing to lose, firing winner after winner, totaling 31 when the match was all said and done. She took it to Halep from the start and never let up.

“I can say I am a little bit lost on court,” said Halep, who is the first two-seed to lose in the Australian Open first-round since Virginia Ruzici in 1979. “But I need time and I’m sure that I will come back stronger soon.”

Zhang will take on France’s Alize Cornet in the second-round. Cornet rolled past Serbia’s Bojana Jovanovski 6-1, 6-0 in her opener.

American Madison Keys notched a nice victory over Kazakhstan’s Zarina Diyas, winning 7-6(5), 6-1 to set up a matchup with another Kazakhstani, Yaroslava Shvedova, who ousted Bulgaria’s Tsvetana Pironkova 6-4, 6-4.

Americans Vania King, Varvara Lepchenko and Madison Brengle all won on Tuesday to book their spots in the second-round.