Rogers gives Halep the slip
Unheralded American upsets the No. 4 seed in the first round at the Australian Open.
MELBOURNE, Australia — Shelby Rogers caused the first upset at the Australian Open on Monday, defeating fourth-seeded Simona Halep, 6-3, 6-1, in the opening match on the main court.
Playing only her second main-draw match ever at the Australian Open, the No. 52-ranked Rogers broke the 2014 French Open finalist's serve four times in Rod Laver Arena. It was the second year in a row that Halep lost in the first round at Melbourne Park, and the fourth time overall.
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. But the 24-year-old from Charleston, S.C., reached the second round at only one other tournament in 2016.
Her only previous win against a top-10 player was in 2014, when she beat then-No. 8 Eugenie Bouchard in Montreal, but the run at Roland Garros gave her confidence.
“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,” Rogers said. “So I have definitely carried that away from the French Open and just been enjoying it a little bit. There has been a lot of positive feedback.”
Halep, a two-time quarterfinalist in Australia, said she was hampered by pain in her left knee, and the pressure of the match.
Unlike Halep, 13thseeded Venus Williams improved on her first-round exit from last year, advancing with a 7-6 (5), 7-5 win over Kateryna Kozlova.
Seventh-seeded Muguruza saved a set point in the first set, needed a medical timeout and fended off three break points at 1-4 in the second set to defeat Marina Erakovic, 7-5, 6-4.
Olympic gold medalist Monica Puig had no trouble beating Patricia Tig, 6-0, 6-1.
Destanee Aiava, a 16year-old Melbourne high school student, became the first player born in this millennium to play a main-draw match at a major. She lost to German qualifier Mona Barthel, 6-3, 7-6 (4).
In a pair of all-American matches, Samantha Crawford beat Lauren Davis, 4-6, 6-3, 6-0, and Alison Riske defeated Madison Brengle, 7-5, 6-3.
Two seeded women lost. Varvara Lepchenko beat No. 19 Kiki Bertens, 7-5, 7-6 (5), and former No. 1 Jelena Jankovic beat No. 26 Laura Siegemund, 6-1, 1-6, 6-4.
On the men’s side, fifthseeded Kei Nishikori subdued Andrey Kuznetsov, 7-5, 1-6, 6-4, 7-6 (6), 6-2; No. 10 Tomas Berdych advanced; and 24-year-old American Ryan Harrison beat Nicolas Mahut, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2.