Murray, Kerber win their first major matches as top seeds
In his first Grand Slam match with the elevated status of having a knighthood and the No. 1 ranking, Andy Murray berated himself when he made mistakes and frequently yelled during a 7-5, 7-6 (5), 6-2 win over Illya Marchenko. In other words, nothing much has changed. The five-time finalist started on Rod Laver Arena on Monday, taking the first step in his bid for a first Australian Open title.
Angelique Kerber, who is defending a major title and is also the No. 1 seed at a Grand Slam for the first time, had some nervous moments in her 6-2, 5-7, 6-2 win over Lesia Tsurenko.
Kerber won her first Grand Slam title here last year, beating Serena Williams in the final after saving match point in the first round. So after wasting a match point before her serve was broken as Tsurenko rallied to win the second set, Kerber said her mind raced back 12 months.
“To be honest, I was thinking about this,” she said. “When I lost the second set, and I had match point, I was thinking about my match last year in the first round - first rounds are always tough.” Murray has lost four of the last six finals here - including the last two - to six-time champion Novak Djokovic. But he did take something off his long-time friend at the end of last year when he replaced Djokovic in the top ranking during a stunning finish to the season.
He subsequently received a knighthood in Queen Elizabeth II’s New Year’s honors list. Murray said the ranking and the civic honors won’t change anything, and he faces “the same pressure, same expectations.”
There’s one thing he desperately wants to change. “I’ve never won here - I’m going to try to change that this year,” he said. Other players who could potentially stand in his way - No. 4 Stan Wawrinka, No. 5 Kei Nishikori and No. 10 Tomas Berdych - had first-round wins. Another, Roger Federer, was set to play his first tour-level match in more than six months when he played Jurgen Melzer in a night match.
TOUGH TIME
US Open champion Wawrinka had a tough time in the first night match on Margaret Court Arena, scraping past 35th-ranked Martin Klizan 4-6, 6-4, 7-5, 4-6, 6-4.
In the ninth game of the fifth set, Wawrinka smashed a soft half-volley from Klizan straight back into the Slovakian’s body, clipping the frame and just missing his midsection. He stepped over the net to ensure Klizan was OK, then went on to hold serve and broke in the next game to finish off in 3 hours, 24 minutes.
There are 18 American women in the draw, and two recorded wins in the first two matches on Rod Laver. Venus Williams beat Kateryna Kozlova 7-6 (5), 7-5 right after Shelby Rogers’ upset 6-3, 6-1 win over fourth-seeded Simona Halep, a result which sent the former French Open finalist out in the first round for the second year running at Melbourne Park.
Rogers made a surprising run to the French Open quarterfinals before losing to eventual champion Garbine Muguruza last year, when she was ranked No. 108, and is still using her success there as motivation.
“The biggest thing I took away from that was just that I can compete with the top players in the world and I’m good enough,” she said.
Seventh-seeded Muguruza saved a set point in the first set and needed a medical timeout before advancing 7-5, 6-4 over Marina Erakovic.
CoCo Vandeweghe overcame a bout of nausea to beat No. 15-seeded Roberta Vinci 6-1, 7-6 (3). Other seeded players who lost were No. 19 Kiki Bertens, No. 23 Darya Kasatkina and No. 26 Laura Siegemund.
The 16-year-old Destanee Aiava became the first player born in this millennium to play in the main draw of a major, but the milestone match ended in a 6-3, 7-6 (4) loss to Mona Barthel. In contrasting openers, Nishikori needed 31/2 hours to beat Andrey Kuznetsov 7-5, 1-6, 6-4, 7-6 (6), 6-2, but Berdych only played a set - which he won 6-1 - before Luca Vanni retired from their match. No. 14 Nick Kyrgios returned from his suspension for underperforming in Shanghai last year by racing through a 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 win against Gastao Elias. Other men’s seeds advancing included 2014 U.S. Open champion Marin Cilic, 2008 Australian Open finalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, No. 19 John Isner, No. 23 Jack Sock, No. 27 Bernard Tomic, No. 29 Viktor Troicki and No. 31 Sam Querrey. No. 16 Lucas Pouille lost to qualifier Alexander Bublik. — AP