With 30,000 fans in the stands (on all pitches) and an easy victory over the Corona, the Australian Open kicked off today (Monday) when no extraordinary surprises were recorded in the top-ranked games.
Opened with world champion and No. 1 seed Novak Djokovic looking for a ninth win in the tournament and having no trouble traveling to the next stage in front with an easy win over Frenchman Jeremy Chardi 3: 6, 1: 6, 2: 6 smooth in 95 minutes of tennis.
Last year’s finalist, Dominic Tim (3) also started with a victory of his own, moving easily to the next stage with a victory over Kazakh Mikhail Kokushkin (90th in the world) 6: 7 (2), 2: 6, 3: 6. Sasha Zebrav also in the second stage thanks to a victory over the American Marcus Giron (73) 7: 6 (8), 6: 7 (5), 3: 6, 2: 6.
For the women, Serena Williams, who will be looking for an eighth win in the prestigious tournament in the next two weeks, had no trouble overtaking German Laura Sigmund (51) with 1: 6, 1: 6 on the way to the next stage. Naomi Osaka defeated Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 1: 6, 2: 6. Simona Halp, did her job against local Lizette Cabrera (14) thanks to 2: 6, 1: 6.