Australian Open: Shapovalov cruises past Tsitsipas in straight sets
18-year-old Canadian will face Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in 2nd round
Canadian Denis Shapovalov advanced to the second round of the Australian Open with a 6-1, 6-3, 7-6 (5) victory over Greece's Stefanos Tsitsipas on Monday.
It's the first main-draw win at the Australian Open for the 18-year-old from Richmond Hill, Ont.
Shapovalov won 57 per cent of his first service points and converted on 5-of-8 break points. He also had nine aces and 33 winners.
"I think I played extremely well today," Shapovalov said in his post-match press conference. "I felt from the warmup that I was feeling the ball really clean and I was able to get the lead right from the start. I thought maybe he would start off tight and that's what happened and I was able to maintain it really well."
Vancouver's Vasek Pospisil dropped a 6-2, 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (5) decision to sixth-seeded Marin Cilic of Croatia.
Shapovalov, currently ranked No. 50, will face 15th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the second round. Shapovalov beat the 32-year-old Tsonga in their only career matchup at the U.S. Open last summer.
"It would be an honour to play him again," Shapovalov said.
Three Canadians are scheduled to play their opening matches Tuesday.
Milos Raonic of Thornhill, Ont., the No. 22 seed, will meet Lukas Lacko of Slovakia. Peter Polansky of Thornhill, Ont., is scheduled to play Karen Khachanov of Russia and Eugenie Bouchard of Westmount, Que., will face Oceane Dodin of France.
Bleak day for Americans
Venus Williams and U.S. Open champ Sloane Stephens were upset early and the bleak opening day for Americans continued at the Australian Open with the women going 1 for 9 and two of the highest-ranked U.S. men joining them as first-round casualties.
In her first match at Rod Laver Arena since losing last year's final to her sister, Serena, Venus Williams lost her opener to Belinda Bencic 6-3, 7-5 and ensured the title won't stay in the family.
Serena Williams hasn't played a Grand Slam tournament since last year's final because of her pregnancy and the birth of her first child.
"I don't think I played a bad match. She just played above and beyond," said Venus Williams, who was playing her 18th Australian Open. "I just have to give her credit for that.
"I didn't play so bad, I wasn't missing every shot. Just didn't work out."
U.S. Open champion Stephens was the first American to fall Monday, losing 2-6, 7-6 (2), 6-2 to No. 34-ranked Zhang Shuai. She was followed by Williams and No. 10-seeded CoCo Vandeweghe, a semifinalist here and at the U.S. Open last year, who was feeling sick and frustrated in 7-6 (4), 6-2 loss to Timea Babos.
CiCi Bellis, Sofia Kenin — who lost to No. 12 Julia Goerges, now on a 15-match winning streak — Alison Riske, Taylor Townsend and Jennifer Brady all lost before Nicole Gibbs beat Viktoriya Tomova 6-1, 6-1 to end the streak of eight losses for the U.S. women.
Irina Falconi lost 6-1, 6-1 to No. 23-seeded Daria Gavrilova in the last match on Rod Laver Arena, meaning the American women lost nine of their 10 matches on day 1.
No. 8-seeded Jack Sock, the highest ranked of the American men, lost 6-1, 7-6 (4), 5-7, 6-3 to Yuichi Sugita and his compatriot John Isner, seeded 16th, lost in four sets to Australian Matt Ebden. U.S. qualifier Kevin King lost in straight sets to No. 15 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
Nadal, Wozniacki advance
Top-ranked Rafael Nadal and No. 3 Grigor Dimitrov opened with routine wins, as did second-seeded Caroline Wozniacki and No. 4 Elina Svitolina on the women's side.
Nadal, returning from time out with a sore right knee, had no problems in a 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 win over Victor Estrella Burgos in the first night match on Rod Laver Arena. At the same time, Australian hope Nick Kyrgios beat Rogerio Dutra Silva 6-1, 6-2, 6-4.
Also advancing were No. 10 Pablo Carreno Busta, No. 23 Gilles Muller, No. 24 Diego Schwartzman, No. 28 Damir Dzumhur, No. 30 Andrei Rublev and No. 31 Pablo Cuevas.
U.S. Open finalist and No. 11-seeded Kevin Anderson lost in five sets to Kyle Edmund.
French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko made a positive start with a 6-1, 6-4 win over 37-year-old Francesca Schiavone, the 2010 French Open winner, and No. 15 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova beat Kateryna Kozlova.
Olympic gold medalist Monica Puig saved a match point before recovering for a 4-6, 7-6 (6), 6-4 win over former U.S. Open champion Sam Stosur.
Other seeded players falling included No. 24 Dominika Cibulkova, the 2014 Australian Open finalist who lost to Kaia Kanepi, No. 25 Peng Shuai and No. 31 Ekaterina Makarova.
With files from The Associated Press