Australian Open 2018 Results: Winners, Scores, Stats from Monday Singles Bracket
The United States endured a horror start to the 2018 Australian Open as seeds Venus Williams, Sloane Stephens, CoCo Vandeweghe, John Isner and Jack Sock were all knocked out in the first round of singles competition on Monday in Melbourne.
Men's top seed Rafael Nadal endured no such trouble as he eased past Victor Estrella Burgos with a 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 victory at Rod Laver Arena.
Meanwhile, despite the absence of Andy Murray, there was plenty to celebrate for Great Britain, as Kyle Edmund ousted 11th seed Kevin Anderson in five sets.
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Read on for a recap of the day's action along with selected results.
Selected Monday Results
Men's Singles
(1) Rafael Nadal bt. Victor Estrella Burgos: 6-1, 6-1, 6-1
(3) Grigor Dimitrov bt. Dennis Novak: 6-3, 6-2, 6-1
Matthew Ebden bt. (16) John Isner: 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3
(6) Marin Cilic bt. Vasek Pospisil: 6-2, 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (5)
(17) Nick Kyrgios bt. Rogerio Dutra Silva: 6-1, 6-2, 6-4
Yuichi Sugita bt. (8) Jack Sock: 6-1, 7-6 (4), 5-7, 6-3
Kyle Edmund bt. (11) Kevin Anderson: 6-7 (4), 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4
(15) Jo-Wilfried Tsonga bt. Kevin King: 6-4, 6-4, 6-1
Women's Singles
Belinda Bencic bt. (5) Venus Williams: 6-3, 7-5
Zhang Shuai bt. (13) Sloane Stephens: 2-6, 7-6 (2), 6-2
Monica Puig bt. Sam Stosur: 4-6, 7-6 (6), 6-4
(2) Caroline Wozniacki bt. Mihaela Buzarnescu: 6-2, 6-3
Timea Babos bt. CoCo Vandeweghe: 7-6 (4), 6-2
(23) Daria Gavrilova bt. Irina Falconi: 6-1, 6-1
(4) Elina Svitolina bt. Ivana Jorovic: 6-3, 6-2
(7) Jelena Ostapenko bt. Francesca Schiavone: 6-1, 6-4
Full results can be found at the Australian Open's official website.
The United States enjoyed an excellent 2017 in women's tennis.
They had three out of the four semi-finalists at the Australian Open—Serena Williams came out on top against her sister, Venus, in the final—and all four as Sloane Stephens won the U.S. Open.
But things could hardly have gone worse on the opening day of 2018's first Grand Slam, as nine of the 10 U.S. women in action in the singles were defeated.
Nicole Gibbs was the sole American competitor in the women's draw on Monday to make the second round with her 6-1, 6-1 defeat of Viktoriya Tomova.
Switzerland's Bencic, 20, upset Venus in straight sets to ensure the Australian Open title would not stay in the Williams family in 2018.
Chinese player Zhang Shuai was made to work harder to oust U.S. Open champion Stephens, but she eventually came through 2-6, 7-6 (2), 6-2 in just under two hours after saving the match at 5-4 down in the second set.
Arguably the low point for American tennis fans was Vandeweghe's defeat to Timea Babos.
The 26-year-old reached the last four at the Australian and U.S. Opens last year—and the quarter-finals at Wimbledon—but suffered an ignominious defeat on the Hisense Arena as she was given two code violations, per the New York Times' Ben Rothenberg:
In the men's singles on Monday, American fans finally had something to celebrate as Mackenzie McDonald and Ryan Harrison both prevailed.
But Kevin King was unable to cause an upset in the day's final match at Rod Laver Arena as he fell to a straight-sets defeat to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
Nadal's win over Estrella Burgos was as routine as they come as he saw out the victory in just over 90 minutes.
It was an utterly dominant display from the Spaniard as he hit 28 winners to his opponents' 10 and won more than double the number of points in the match—86 to 41.
Edmund's defeat of South African Anderson was a different story altogether, as they played out a four-hour epic.
The Briton was twice down a set and then 2-0 behind in the decider, but he eventually came through despite hitting nine fewer winners than his opponent's 70.
The crucial differential was how clinical Edmund was on his break points as he claimed four of 11 earned compared to Anderson's two from 11.
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