Melbourne, Australia
Playing just her second match in the main draw at the season’s first Grand Slam tournament, the No. 52-ranked Rogers broke the 2014 French Open finalist’s serve four times on Rod Laver Arena. It was the second year in a row that Halep lost in the first round at Melbourne Park, and the fourth time overall.
Rogers made a surprising run to the French Open quarterfinals before losing to eventual champion Garbine Muguruza last year, when she was ranked No. 108, but only advanced to the second round at one other tournament in 2016. Her only previous win against a top 10 player was in 2014, when she beat then No. 8-ranked Eugenie Bouchard in Montreal.
“There are no easy matches at this level … so I’m happy to get through and definitely take confidence from what I did today,” Rogers said in her on-court interview.
Seventh-seeded Muguruza saved a set point in the first set and needed a medical timeout before advancing with a 7-5, 6-4 win over Marina Erakovic.
Olympic gold medalist Monica Puig raced through her opening match, beating Patricia Tig, 6-0, 6-1. Duan Yingying was among the early winners with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Rebecca Sramkova.
Australian teenager Destanee Aiava’s milestone match ended in a 6-3, 7-6 (4) loss to German qualifier Mona Barthel. The 16-year-old Melbourne high school student became the first player born in this millennium to play a main draw match at a major.
Jeremy Chardy was the first winner on the men’s side, and only played four games. He was leading 4-0 when Nicolas Almagro retired from their match with an injured right calf muscle.
Fifth-seeded Kei Nishikori got off to a sluggish start, had a big letdown during a fourth-set tiebreaker but saved his best or last for a five-set victory over Russia’s Andrey Kuznetsov. Nishikori, who has advanced to the quarterfinals at Melbourne Park the past two years, beat Kuznetsov 5-7, 6-1, 6-4, 6-7 (6), 6-2 in 3½ hours.
Nishikori led, 5-2, in the tiebreaker before Kuznetsov rallied to take four consecutive points, then clinched the fourth on his second set point.
In the fifth set, Nishikori broke Kuznetsov’s serve in the fourth and in the last games.
The opening Grand Slam tournament of the year got under way today at Melbourne Park, with top-seeded Andy Murray and Angelique Kerber set to play their first-round matches.
The sun was shining with temperatures of 68 degrees when the gates opened an hour before the scheduled start of play. The forecast high was for 88 today, rising to 99 on Tuesday.