Auger-Aliassime advances to Australian Open 2nd round with 4-set win over Germany's Struff
The 29th-seeded Canadian will next face Spain's Alejandro Davidovich Fokina
Montreal's Felix Auger-Aliassime cruised into the second round of the Australian Open on Monday with a 6-3, 6-0, 4-6, 6-1 win over Germany's Jan-Lennard Struff.
The 29th-seeded Canadian, who won the Adelaide International last week for his sixth ATP title, controlled the match, firing 19 aces to Struff's 15 and committing just one double fault to Struff's four. Auger-Aliassime won 85 per cent of his first-serve points and broke Struff eight times.
WATCH | Felix Auger-Aliassime advances to the Aussie Open 2nd round:
Auger-Aliassime will face Spain's Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the second round.
Montreal's Gabriel Diallo makes his Australian Open main-draw debut Monday night against Italy's Luca Nardi, while Denis Shapovalov, of Richmond Hill, Ont., faces Spain's Roberto Bautista Agut early Tuesday.
In the women's singles, Vancouver's Rebecca Marino will face Britain's Katie Boulter in the first round.
Leylah Fernandez, of Laval, Que., teams up with Ukraine's Nadiia Kichenok to play Australia's Talia Gibson and Maya Joint in women's doubles. Ottawa's Gabriella Dabrowski and New Zealand's Erin Routliffe, the No. 2 seeds, will face American duo Danielle Collins and Desirae Krawczyk in the opening round.
Azarenka, Tsitsipas, Kyrgios make early exits
On a busy and warm Day 2, which included nine Grand Slam champions with a combined 43 major trophies in action plus another half-dozen players with runner-up showings, the winners included No. 2 Iga Swiatek, No. 3 Coco Gauff, No. 7 Jessica Pegula and Naomi Osaka among the women, and No. 1 Jannik Sinner and No. 3 Carlos Alcaraz among the men.
Osaka, who won two of her four major titles in Australia, defeated Caroline Garcia 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 in Monday's last match at Rod Laver Arena.
Noteworthy exits came from two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka, 2017 French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko, and two-time major finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas. Ostapenko's 6-3, 7-6 (6) loss came against Tokyo Olympics gold medallist Belinda Bencic, who is ranked outside the top 400 after returning in October from maternity leave.
Also one-and-done, but not that surprisingly: Nick Kyrgios, who lost to Djokovic in the 2022 Wimbledon final and played one match the past two seasons because of injuries. Kyrgios dealt with a strained abdominal muscle in the lead-up to this week and was defeated by Jacob Fearnley 7-6 (3), 6-3, 7-6 (2).
"Sorry for Nick," said Fearnley, a 23-year-old from Scotland who played college tennis at TCU in Fort Worth, Texas. "I could tell he was dealing with some stuff."
The intensity and physicality of the points against Djokovic wore on Basavareddy. Another key: Djokovic's backhand grew faster in the second set, while Basavareddy's shots off that wing slowed. And one more: Djokovic hit 23 aces.
At 3-all, a half-hour in, Basavareddy moved out front by breaking Djokovic with a backhand return winner. Soon enough, that set belonged to the youngster, who is not shy about saying the Serb is his favorite player. Basavareddy showed off some great touch with drop shots and lob winners, while hanging in there at the baseline with the consummate baseliner.
"Very complete player," Djokovic said. "He did very pleasantly surprise me with all of his shots and his fighting spirit toward the end."
With files from Associated Press