Australian Open—Melbourne, Australia
Tuesday’s action at the Australian Open saw nine-time former winner Novak Djokovic make a triumphed return to his favourite court after he easily dispatched Roberto Carballes Baena 6-3, 6-4, 6-0.
Needing two hours and two minutes to advance, Djokovic hit nine aces, won 87 percent of his first serve points and hit 41 winners in total.
The legendary Serb will next face Enzo Couacaud or Hugo Dellien.
Elsewhere, No. 2 Casper Ruud, No. 5 Andrey Rublev, No. 8 Taylor Fritz, No. 9 Holgar Rune, No. 12 Alexander Zverev, and No. 14 Pablo Carreno Busta all advanced. Unseeded Brit Andy Murray turned back the clock on the match of the tournament so far, dismissing last year’s semifinalist No. 13 seed Matteo Berrettini 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 6-7(7), 7-6(6) in 4 hour and 49 minutes.
Murray will next face either Thanasi Kokkinakis or Fabio Fognini.
On the women’s side, No. 2 On Jabeur, No. 4 Caroline Garcia, No. 5 Anyra Sabalenka, No. 9 Veronika Kudermetova, No. 12 Belinda Bencic, No. 16 Anett Kontaveit and unseeded Canadian Leylah Fernandez all advanced.
Former two-time Major winner Garbine Muguruza was ousted in the opening round by No. 26 seed Elise Mertens 3-6, 7-6(3), 6-1.
Wednesday’s action in Melbourne Park will feature Rafael Nadal, Iga Swiatek, Emma Raducanu and Felix Auger-Aliassime.
*****
First-round results:
(2) Casper Ruud Defeats Tomas Machac 63 76(6) 67(5) 63
(4) Novak Djokovic Defeats Roberto Carballes Baena 63 64 60
(5) Andrey Rublev Defeats Dominic Thiem 63 64 62
(8) Taylor Fritz Defeats Nikoloz Basilashvili 64 62 46 75
(9) Holger Rune Defeats Filip Krajinovic 62 63 64
(12) Alexander Zverev Defeats Juan Pablo Varillas 46 61 57 76(3) 64
Andy Murray Defeats (13) Matteo Berrettini 63 63 46 67(7) 76(6)
(14) Pablo Carreno Busta Defeats Pedro Cachin 76(4) 61 76(3)
(22) Alex de Minaur Defeats Yu Hsiou Hsu 62 62 63
(23) Diego Schwartzman Defeats Oleksii Krutykh 64 67(6) 63 76(5)
(25) Daniel Evans Defeats Facundo Bagnis 64 46 64 64
Nicolas Jarry Defeats (26) Miomir Kecmanovic 63 64 763
(27) Grigor Dimitrov Defeats Aslan Karatsev 76(3) 75 62
(30) Alejandro Davidovich Fokina Defeats Alexander Bublik 60 67(3) 36 64 63
Benjamin Bonzi Defeats Mattia Bellucci 46 63 76(5) 64
Jenson Brooksby Defeats Christopher O’Connell 36 62 63 62
Jeremy Chardy Defeats Daniel Elahi Galan 16 75 61 64
Laslo Djere Defeats Zizou Bergs 64 16 64 61
Tommy Paul Defeats Jan-Lennard Struff 61 76(6) 62
Ben Shelton Defeats Zhizhen Zhang 46 63 62 26 76(4)
J.J. Wolf Defeats Jordan Thompson 63 36 64 75
