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Monday, January 15, 2018

Americans go 3-12 on First Day of Australian Open; Gauff, Hewitt, Fenty and Korda Through to Quarterfinals in Tralragon Grade 1; Costa Rica G1 Underway with 54 US Juniors; All Eight US Players Advance in Bolton

The first day of the Australian Open was a disappointment for Americans, with only three victories and a dozen losses.  Three of the US women who reached the US Open semifinals back in September lost in the first round, with Venus Williams, champion Sloane Stephens and CoCo Vandeweghe eliminated.  Finalist Madison Keys will play Tuesday (tonight in the US).  Nicole Gibbs was the only US woman to post a victory of the ten in action Monday.

Only five US men were on the schedule, so their record of 2-3 isn't as shocking, but No. 8 seed Jack Sock and No. 16 seed John Isner were both upset.  Ryan Harrison and qualifier Mackenzie McDonald earned victories, with McDonald getting his first slam win.  Qualifier Kevin King lost, but as this article from Tennis Life points out, he still should be considered a big winner in his first slam appearance.

2017 Australian Open girls champion Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine won her first tour level main draw match in her first appearance, with the 15-year-old defeating No. 25 seed Peng Shuai of China. For an extensive look at the match and the "youngest since" parts of her achievements, see this WTA article.

Sixteen Americans are in action on Tuesday, with Bernarda Pera added as a lucky loser after Margarita Gasparyan withdrew.

American results:

Monday:

Belinda Bencic(SUI) def. Venus Williams[5] 6-3, 7-5
Daria Gavrilova[23](AUS) def. Irina Falconi 6-1, 6-1
Shuai Zhang(CHN) def. Sloane Stephens[13] 2-6, 7-6(2), 6-2
Matthew Edben(AUS) def. John Isner[16] 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga[15](FRA) def. Kevin King 6-4, 6-4, 6-1
Julia Goerges[12](GER) def. Sonya Kenin 6-4, 6-4
Timea Babos(HUN) def. CoCo Vandeweghe[10] 7-6(4), 6-2
Magdalena Rybarikova[19](SVK) def. Taylor Townsend 6-0, 7-5
Yuichi Sugita(JPN) def. Jack Sock[8] 6-1, 7-6(4), 5-7, 6-3
Kirsten Flipkens(BEL) def. Alison Riske 2-6, 7-6(6), 6-3
Mackenzie McDonald def. Elias Ymer(SWE) 6-4, 6-3, 4-6, 6-1
Magda Linette(POL) def. Jennifer Brady 2-6, 6-4, 6-3
Kiki Bertens[30](NED) def. CiCi Bellis 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-2
Ryan Harrison def. Dudi Sela(ISR) 6-3, 5-7, 3-6, 7-5, 6-2
Nicole Gibbs def. Viktoriya Tomova(BUL) 6-1, 6-1

Tuesday (Monday night in US):

Donald Young v Novak Djokovic[14](SRB)
Frances Tiafoe v Juan Martin Del Potro[12](ARG)
Madison Brengle v Johanna Konta[9](GBR)
Madison Keys[17] v Qiang Wang(CHN)
Shelby Rogers v Mirjana Lucic-Baroni[28](CRO)
Tennys Sandgren v Jeremy Chardy(FRA)
Varvara Lepchenko v Anastasija Sevastova[14](LAT)
Kristie Ahn v Barbora Strycova[20](CZE)
Tim Smyczek v Alexei Popyrin(AUS)
Lauren Davis v Jana Cepelova(SVK)
Sam Querrey[13] v Feliciano Lopez(ESP)
Steve Johnson v Denis Kudla
Christina McHale v Aliaksandra Sasnovich(BLR)
Jared Donaldson v Albert Ramos-Vinolas[21](ESP)
Bernarda Pera v Anna Blinkova(RUS)

Four American juniors are through to the quarterfinals of the ITF Grade 1 in Traralgon Australia. No. 7 seed Sebastian Korda defeated No. 9 seed Thiago Seyboth Wild of Brazil 7-6(4), 7-5 and will face No. 2 seed Marko Miladinovic of Serbia.  No. 13 seed Andrew Fenty downed wild card Rinky Hijikata of Australia 6-4, 2-6, 6-0 and will play unseeded Clement Tabur of France.  Top seed Timofey Skatov was eliminated by No. 14 seed Ondrej Styler of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-6(1).

Unseeded Coco Gauff won a tough one over Australian wild card Gabriella Da Silva Fick 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(3) to advance to a meeting with unseeded Violet Apisah of Papua New Guinea.  Unseeded Dalayna Hewitt defeated unseeded Mana Kawamura of Japan 6-2, 6-2 and will play No. 5 seed Joanna Garland of Taiwan in the quarterfinals.

The Grade 1 Coffee Bowl is underway in Costa Rica and, as is usually the case, Americans dominate the entries, with 27 boys and 27 girls in the 64-player singles draws.  That means there are only 10 first round matches that do not feature an American.  The US has 10 seeds in the boys draw, including the top two seeds: Trey Hilderbrand[1], Govind Nanda[2], Tyler Zink[6], Keenan Mayo[7], Brandon Nakashima[8], Eliot Spizzirri[9], Will Grant[10], Tomas Kopczynski[12], Nathan Han[13], Ronan Jachuk[14], Leighton Allen[Q], Pierce Rollins, Mark Mandlik, Garrett Johns, Adam Neff[Q], Blaise Bicknell, Andrew Dale, Toby Kodat, Niroop Vallabhaneni, Boris Kozlov, Milledge Cossu, John Bernard, Max Wild, Jordi Redelijk[Q], Alex Bancila[Q], Zane Khan and Michael Agee.  The girls draw has eight US seeds:  Vanessa Ong[2], Elli Mandlik[4], Chloe Beck[5], Sabina Dadaciu[6], Lea Ma[7] Shelly Yaloz[13], Skyler Grishuk[14] and Sanyukta Gawande[16]. The other 19 girls in the draw are Sasha Wood, Najah Dawson, Addison Guevara, Sophia Hatton, Haley Giavara, Jenna Dean, Lauren Stein, Marcella Cruz, Imani Graham, Charlotte Owensby, Kacie Harvey, Gabby Price, Kennedy Bridgforth, Mackenzie Clark, Tara Malik, Nicole Hammond, Zoe Hitt, Nikki Redelijk and Kylie Collins.

The tournament website has draws, the order of play and a link to live streaming. 

All eight Americans competing at the Tennis Europe tournament in Bolton advanced to the third round by winning their opening matches today. See the tournament site for scores and draws.

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