Australian Open 2016 Results: Tuesday's Singles Bracket Winners, Scores, Stats
Although a majority of the seeded players in each draw managed to advance at the 2016 Australian Open on Tuesday, a trio of high-profile early exits highlighted the action. Rafael Nadal, Simona Halep and Venus Williams were all sent packing in their opening matches.
Angelique Kerber was the only other top-10 seed pushed to the brink. She needed three sets to knock off Misaki Doi. All of the other top-tier contenders moved through in straight sets as an entertaining first round came to a close.
Let's check out the complete list of Tuesday results from both main draws. That's followed by a recap of some key storylines from another busy day at Melbourne Park.
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Men's Tuesday Results
| 1 | (2) Andy Murray | Alexander Zverev | 6-1, 6-2, 6-3 |
| 1 | (4) Stan Wawrinka | Dmitry Tursunov | 7-6, 6-3, Ret. |
| 1 | Fernando Verdasco | (5) Rafael Nadal | 7-6, 4-6, 3-6, 7-6, 6-2 |
| 1 | (8) David Ferrer | Peter Gojowczyk | 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 |
| 1 | (10) John Isner | Jerzy Janowicz | 6-3, 7-6, 6-3 |
| 1 | Rajeev Ram | (11) Kevin Anderson | 7-6, 6-7, 6-3, 3-0 Ret. |
| 1 | (13) Milos Raonic | Lucas Pouille | 6-1, 6-4, 6-4 |
| 1 | (16) Bernard Tomic | Denis Istomin | 6-7, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 |
| 1 | (18) Feliciano Lopez | Daniel Evans | 6-1, 6-0, 6-4 |
| 1 | Gilles Muller | (20) Fabio Fognini | 7-6, 7-6, 6-7, 7-6 |
| 1 | (21) Viktor Troicki | Daniel Munoz De La Nava | 4-6, 4-6, 6-1, 7-6, 6-3 |
| 1 | (23) Gael Monfils | Yuichi Sugita | 6-1, 6-3, 6-2 |
| 1 | (25) Jack Sock | Taylor Fritz | 6-4, 3-6, 0-6, 6-3, 6-4 |
| 1 | (30) Jeremy Chardy | Ernests Gulbis | 7-5, 2-6, 6-7, 6-3, 13-11 |
| 1 | (31) Steve Johnson | Aljaz Bedene | 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 |
| 1 | (32) Joao Sousa | Mikhail Kukushkin | 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 |
| 1 | Lleyton Hewitt | James Duckworth | 7-6, 6-2, 6-4 |
| 1 | Sam Groth | Adrian Mannarino | 7-6, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 |
| 1 | Santiago Giraldo | Donald Young | 6-4, 1-6, 6-3, 6-2 |
| 1 | Nicolas Mahut | Marco Cecchinato | 4-6, 6-2, 6-2, 6-2 |
| 1 | John Millman | Diego Schwartzman | 3-6, 5-7, 7-6, 5-0 Ret. |
| 1 | Marcel Granollers | Matthew Ebden | 6-2, 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 |
| 1 | Thomaz Bellucci | Jordan Thompson | 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 |
| 1 | Lukas Rosol | Taro Daniel | 7-6, 7-5, 5-7, 6-7, 6-1 |
| 1 | Guido Pella | Steve Darcis | 2-6, 3-6, 6-3, 7-5, 6-1 |
| 1 | Simone Bolelli | Brian Baker | 7-6, 7-6, 6-7, 7-6 |
| 1 | Tommy Robredo | Malek Jaziri | 7-5, 3-6, 4-6, 7-6, 8-6 |
| 1 | Dudi Sela | Benjamin Becker | 6-1, 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 |
| 1 | Stephane Robert | Bjorn Fratangelo | 6-2, 6-2, 6-2 |
| 1 | Radek Stepanek | Tatsuma Ito | 6-4, 6-3, 6-7, 6-2 |
| 1 | Andrey Kuznetsov | Ryan Harrison | 7-5, 6-4, 6-4 |
| 1 | Tim Smyczek | Daniel Gimeno-Traver | 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 |
Women's Tuesday Results
| 1 | Shuai Zhang | (2) Simona Halep | 6-4, 6-3 |
| 1 | (3) Garbine Muguruza | Anett Kontaveit | 6-0, 6-4 |
| 1 | (7) Angelique Kerber | Misaki Doi | 6-7, 7-6, 6-3 |
| 1 | Johanna Konta | (8) Venus Williams | 6-4, 6-2 |
| 1 | (9) Karolina Pliskova | Kimberly Birrell | 6-4, 6-4 |
| 1 | (11) Timea Bacsinszky | Katerina Siniakova | 6-3, 7-5 |
| 1 | (14) Victoria Azarenka | Alison Van Uytvanck | 6-0, 6-0 |
| 1 | (15) Madison Keys | Zarina Diyas | 7-6, 6-1 |
| 1 | (18) Elina Svitolina | Victoria Duval | 6-2, 6-3 |
| 1 | (19) Jelena Jankovic | Polona Hercog | 6-3, 6-3 |
| 1 | (20) Ana Ivanovic | Tammi Patterson | 6-2, 6-3 |
| 1 | (21) Ekaterina Makarova | Maddison Inglis | 6-3, 6-0 |
| 1 | Johanna Larsson | (29) Irina-Camelia Begu | 6-3, 6-2 |
| 1 | (30) Sabine Lisicki | Petra Cetkovska | 6-4, 6-4 |
| 1 | Varvara Lepchenko | (31) Lesia Tsurenko | 6-7, 6-2, 6-3 |
| 1 | Barbora Strycova | (32) Caroline Garcia | 6-2, 6-4 |
| 1 | Anastasija Sevastova | Jarmila Wolfe | 6-0, 4-2 Ret. |
| 1 | Kirsten Flipkens | Mirjana Lucic-Baroni | 5-7, 6-2, 7-5 |
| 1 | Alize Cornet | Bojana Jovanovski | 6-1, 6-0 |
| 1 | Annika Beck | Priscilla Hon | 6-0, 6-3 |
| 1 | Alexandra Dulgheru | Storm Sanders | 6-4, 6-2 |
| 1 | Naomi Osaka | Donna Vekic | 6-3, 6-2 |
| 1 | Saisai Zheng | Carina Witthoeft | 6-1, 6-2 |
| 1 | Laura Siegemund | Kiki Bertens | 6-4, 7-5 |
| 1 | Denisa Allertova | Bethanie Mattek-Sands | 6-4, 6-7, 6-3 |
| 1 | Vania King | Mona Barthel | 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 |
| 1 | Madison Brengle | Coco Vandeweghe | 6-3, 6-4 |
| 1 | Danka Kovinic | Samantha Crawford | 6-2, 6-4 |
| 1 | Julia Goerges | Andreea Mitu | 6-3, 6-4 |
| 1 | Tatjana Maria | Olga Govortsova | 6-4, 6-3 |
| 1 | Yaroslava Shvedova | Tsvetana Pironkova | 6-4, 6-4 |
| 1 | Lara Arruabarrena | Maryna Zanevska | 6-7, 6-3, 6-3 |
Day 2 Recap
Nadal finished the 2015 season on a high note by sweeping his group at the ATP World Tour Finals and then reached the final in Qatar to open his 2016 campaign. His run ended with a loss to No. 1 Novak Djokovic in both cases, but the strong showings still raised hopes heading into the season's first major.
Alas, those signs of progress didn't carry over against Fernando Verdasco, as his recent woes on the sport's biggest stages continued. He's now been eliminated before the fourth round in three straight Grand Slam events and hasn't gone past the quarterfinals since the 2014 French Open.
While having to face Fernando Verdasco, a former top-10 player, in Round 1 represented bad draw luck, it's the type of match Nadal needs to win if he wants to start contending again.
He finished the five-set match with just 37 winners compared to 90 for Verdasco. Being unable to end points quicker forced the 14-time major champion to do a lot more running and it showed in the final set, which didn't feature much drama as his fellow Spaniard closed out the upset.
Afterward, Nadal remained confident in the process he's gone through over the last few months, as noted by Peter Bodo of ESPN.
"I know I did everything that I can to be ready for it. It was not my day. Let's keep going. That's the only thing," Nadal said. "No, no, there is no more things to do than keep practicing hard, keep practicing the same way that I was doing the last four, five months."
On the women's side, Halep suffered her third early exit in the past four majors. She did reach the semifinals of the U.S. Open during that stretch, but the lack of consistent results in the big events is a serious concern for the No. 2 player in the world.
Zhang Shuai is ranked outside the Top 100 and had never won a Grand Slam match in 14 tries before Tuesday. So it certainly wasn't an unfavorable draw. Halep simply didn't play well, finishing with 17 unforced errors and 11 winners.
ESPN Stats & Info highlighted exactly how rare such a big upset is at the Australian Open:
Williams rounded out the high-profile upsets with a surprisingly lackluster outing. She never seemed to find a comfort zone and Johanna Konta took full advantage as she cruised to a straight-sets victory. The No. 8 seed had just a single ace to go along with more unforced errors (20) than winners (17).
The elder Williams sister enjoyed a resurgent 2015 season with trips to the quarterfinals at both the Australian Open and the U.S. Open. The first-round exit marks an inauspicious start to the new year, however, and leaves plenty of questions for her to answer in the months ahead.
Matt Cronin of Tennis Reporters provided some analysis on the loss:
Elsewhere around the grounds, Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka and Garbine Muguruza all solidified themselves as contenders with convincing victories out of the gate.
Victoria Azarenka provided perhaps the day's most impressive performance, though. She swept aside Alison Van Uytvanck without dropping a single game. Combine that with her title in Brisbane and she's off to an extremely promising start in 2016.
Looking ahead to Day 3, the top seeds are back in action. Serena Williams will take on Su-Wei Hsieh and Djokovic is set to battle Quentin Halys as the reigning champions look to move one step closer to defending their titles.
A couple other matches stand out for potential entertainment value. Roger Federer will need to proceed with caution against the erratic, but still dangerous, Alexandr Dolgopolov and Agnieszka Radwanska figures to face a big second-round test from Eugenie Bouchard.
All stats courtesy of the tournament's official site.
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