Americans Get Action Started at Australian Open
The first major of the 2019 season kicked off on Sunday night on the east coast of the United States as the Australian Open got underway from Melbourne, Australia.
It was a good start to the tournament for many young Americans both on the men’s and women’s side. Highlighting the action was the tall showdown between Reilly Opelka and ninth-seeded John Isner, a battle between two of the tallest players on tour.
As expected, the two delivered lots of aces and short points, and played tiebreakers in all four of the sets. But surprisingly it was Opelka who came out on top, winning the first Grand Slam main draw match of his career 7-6(4), 7-6(6), 6-7(4), 7-6(5) to secure his spot in the second round.
“It’s a big win, yeah, but it’s not like a breakthrough win,” said Opelka. “I’m still barely top 100 so I still have a lot of progress I feel like has to be done, to improve, to continue to get my ranking up.”
While Opelka hit 40 aces, the key to his victory may have been on his second serve as he won a remarkable 64 points on his second serve.
“I think that’s normal with a big-guy match,” he said. “He serves better than me so I expected he’d hit more aces, get more free points, but I think I did a good job of second-serve points.”
Opelka will meet Italian Thomas Fabbiano next, who was a 6-4, 7-6(1), 2-6, 6-3 winner of Australian Jason Kluber.
Just a couple of days after he announced that he will retire later this year, Andy Murray took on 22nd seeded Spaniard Roberto Bautista-Agut in his opener. In a match that lasted more than four hours, Bautista-Agut outlasted Murray 6-4, 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-7(4), 6-2.
“Obviously tonight was the most special match that I played, even though it was the first round of the tournament and I lost,” said Murray, who played his final match in Australia. “I certainly won’t forget tonight, that’s for sure.”
Bautista-Agut moves into a matchup with Australia’s John Millman, who was a 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(3), 6-2 victor against Federico Delbonis.
Frances Tiafoe powered to a 7-6(7), 6-3, 6-3 win against Prajnesh Gunneswaran, while Mackenzie McDonald upset Andrey Rublev of Russia 6-4, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4. McDonald takes on sixth-seed Marin Cilic next.
Americans Taylor Fritz and Denis Kudla also notched victories in their openers, while Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal cruised to wins in straight-sets.
Kevin Anderson, who captured the New York Open title a year ago, moved past Adrian Mannarino 6-3, 5-7, 6-2, 6-1. The fifth-seed plays Tiafoe next in a rematch of last year’s New York Open quarterfinals.
