Shelby scores Aussie upset
American Shelby Rogers caused the first upset of the Australian Open on Monday, beating fourth-seeded Simona Halep, 6-3, 6-1, in the opening match on center court. Playing just her second main draw match ever at the Australian, the No. 52-ranked Rogers broke the 2014 French Open finalist’s serve four times on 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 only advanced to the second round at one other tournament in 2016.
Unlike Halep, 13th-seeded Venus Williams improved on her first-round exit from last year to advance with 7-6 (5), 7-5 win over Kateryna Kozlova. She overcame 48 unforced errors to beat Kozlova for the second consecutive time in the opening round of a major. Williams needed three sets to do so at last year’s U.S. Open — and Monday she rallied twice from a break down in the opening set before prevailing.
Olympic gold medalist Monica Puig raced through her opening match, beating Patricia Tig, 6-0, 6-1. Australian teenager Destanee Aiava’s milestone match ended in a 6-3, 7-6 (4) loss to German qualifier Mona Barthel. The 16-year-old Melbourne high school student became the first player born in this millennium to play a main draw match at a major.
VONN FINISHES 13TH IN RETURN
Racing for the first time in 322 days, Lindsey Vonn had to settle for 13th place Sunday in a women’s World Cup downhill in Altenmarkt-Zaycgenseem, Austria, with an unexpected winner, Christine Scheyer of Austria.
Not being able to push out of the start gate as usual, the American was more than half a second off the lead at the first split and finished 1.54 behind the Austrian. The four-time overall champion, who holds the women’s record of 76 victories, has been out with a knee injury and a broken arm since February last year. The fracture in her right upper arm also damaged nerves, which was still limiting mobility of her hand.
The unheralded Scheyer beat Tina Weirather of Liechtenstein by 0.39 seconds. Jacqueline Wiles of the United States was 0.54 behind in third for her first career podium.
MAN-U TIES LIVERPOOL
Zlatan Ibrahimovic equalized late for Manchester United to bail out teammate Paul Pogba, 1-1, in a frantic, intense English Premiership match with Liverpool at Old Trafford.