Simona Halep is the first top seed casualty of the Australian Open as she lost to Shuai Zhang in straight sets 6-4 6-3. The second seed headed into the tournament with high hopes despite recent injury, however she was unable to prevent a shock exit to the world number 133, Zhang. Going 4-0 down straight away in the first set, it was clear that this was not going to be a routine match for Halep as the Romanian struggled to keep up.
Despite a mini fightback in the first set from Halep, it was Zhang who persevered, taking it 6-4. It had looked like normality resumed in the second set as Halep went a break ahead, however she couldn’t prevent Zhang breaking back to level the set. Zhang was then to break again decisively before serving out the match clinically. This win takes Zhang to the second round of a slam for the first time after going out in the first round an astonishing 14 times in her career.
Good times keep rolling for Konta
Johanna Konta looked to be continuing her great 2015 as she knocked out Venus Williams in straight sets winning 6-4 6-2. The Brit outclassed the American and never looked troubled as she moved onto the second round in Australia for her first time. Williams, the eighth seed and previous finalist had gone into the tournament as one of the favourites for her quarter.
Victoria Azarenka waltzed into the second round with a dominant performance against Alison Van Uytvanck 6-0 6-0. Being tipped by many people to win the title, the Belarussian dominated from start to finish and never looked troubled.
Best of the rest
Last year’s semi-finalist Madison Keys started her Australian Open campaign with a confident win over out of form Zarina Diyas. In a tight first set, the American fought off three set points on Diyas’ serve before taking the set to a tie-break. The second set was more straight forward for Keys as she conceded just one game to move on to the second round, winning 7-6(5) 6-1.
After a strong start to 2015 this was Diyas’ 13th loss in 15 matches and whilst expected, the Kazakhstani will be looking to vastly improve over the next coming months. Garbine Muguruza breezed through into the second round, defeating Anett Kontaveit 6-0 6-4. Going out last year to Serena Williams, the Spaniard will be looking to improve upon last year’s fourth round.
Other Results
Annika Beck def. Priscilla Hon 6-0 6-3
Garbine Muguruza def. Anett Kontaveit 6-0 6-4
Ekaterina Makarova def. Maddison Inglis 6-3 6-0
Vania King def. Mona Barthel 3-6 7-5 6-4
Kirsten Flipkens def. Mirjana Lucic-Baroni 5-7 6-2 7-5
Laura Siegemund def. Kiki Bertens 6-4 7-5
Timea Bacsinszky def. Katerina Siniakova 6-3 7-5
Jelena Jankovic def. Polona Hercog 6-3 6-3
Tatjana Maria def. Olga Govortsova 6-4 6-3
Yaroslava Shvedova def. Tsvetana Pironkova 6-4 6-4
Elina Svitolina def. Victoria Duval 6-2 6-3
Karolina Pliskova def. Kimberly Birrell 6-4 6-4
Barbora Strycova def. Caroline Garcia 6-2 6-4
Varvara Lepchenko def. Lesia Tsurenko 6-7(5) 6-2 6-3
Anastasija Sevastova def. Jarmila Wolfe 6-0 4-2 (RET)
Naomi Osaka def. Donna Vekic 6-3 6-2
Ana Ivanovic def. Tammi Paterson 6-2 6-3
Sabine Lisicki def. Petra Cetkovska 6-4 6-4
Julia Goerges def. Andreea Mitu 6-3 6-4
Angelique Kerber def. Misaki Doi 6-7(4) 7-6(6) 6-3
Saisai Zheng def. Carina Witthoeft 6-1 6-2
Alexandra Dulgheru def. Storm Sanders 6-4 6-2
Lara Arruabarrena-Vecino def. Maryna Zanevska 6-7(4) 6-3 6-3
Danka Kovinic def Samantha Crawford 6-2 6-4
Denisa Allertova def. Bethanie Mattek-Sands 6-4 6-7(5) 6-3
Alize Cornet def. Bojana Jovanovski 6-1 6-0
Johanna Larsson def. Irina Begu 6-3 6-2
Madison Brengle def. Coco Vandeweghe 6-3 6-4