The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Year’s first Grand Slam underway:
Vandeweghe and Stephens also upset by unseeded foes.
No. 5 seed Venus Williams (right) and top seed Rafael Nadal open play today at the Australian Open.
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA — Venus Williams, a finalist last year, is out of the Australian Open in the first round with a 6-3, 7-5 loss to Belinda Bencic at Rod Laver Arena.
Williams, the fifth seed, was one of five Americans to lose early today.
Sloane Stephens, the 13th seed, served for the match in the 10th game of the second set against Zhang Shuai but lost 2-6, 7-6 (2), 6-2. Stephens dropped to 0-8 since her Grand Slam breakthrough title at last year’s U.S. Open.
Tenth seed CoCo Vandeweghe, a semifinalist last year, lost to Timea Babos 7-6 (4), 6-2; 12th-seeded Julia Goerges extended her winning streak to 15 matches with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Sofia Kenin; and No. 19 Magdalena Rybarikova beat Taylor Townsend 6-0, 7-5.
Williams lost to Bencic, 20, for the first time in five career meetings. A turning point came late in the first set when play was stopped to allow for the roof to be closed because of rain. After already saving five break points at 4-3, Bencic returned from an almost 30-minute suspension to win six consecutive points and take the first set.
Bencic, ranked 78th in the world, broke Williams’ serve in the final game of the match, winning the last four points. She clinched it when Williams, who had slipped on the far side of the court, couldn’t get to a ball in the open corner.
Williams lost to her younger sister Serena in last year’s final. Serena is not defending her title after giving birth to her first child in September.
Bencic lost to Serena in the first round last year but played well in teaming with Roger Federer to win the Hopman Cup for Switzerland in the first week of this season.
“Honestly, the first reaction of everyone was ‘Oh, bad luck,’” Bencic said of drawing another Williams sister in the first round. “It’s amazing, when I was a little girl, I was watching them on TV. I never thought I’d get a chance to play them.”
Stephens had a tough match given that Zhang is ranked 34th, just outside the 32 seeds.
After her U.S. Open final win over fellow American Madison Keys, Stephens lost her next six matches — four at tournaments in China and twice in the Fed Cup final — then opened 2018 with a first-round loss at last week’s Sydney International.
In another opener, French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko made a positive start in her attempt to win a second Grand Slam singles title when she beat Francesca Schiavone 6-1, 6-4. The age gap between 20-year-old Ostapenko and 37-year-old Schiavone, the 2010 French Open winner, was the biggest of any in the first round at Melbourne Park.
Ostapenko, the seventh seed, saved two break points in the third game of the opening set and clinched the set with an ace. After a trade of breaks in the second, Ostapenko got the decisive break in the ninth game.
Men: Roger Federer prefers to think of Rafael Nadal or Novak Djokovic as the favorite, despite entering as defending champion and being injury-free.
“I play down my chances just because I don’t think a 36-year-old should be a favorite of a tournament,” Federer said Sunday. “It should not be the case.
“That’s why I see things more relaxed, you know, at a later stage of my career.”
The 19-time major winner can afford to relax slightly longer, given the half of the draw that he shares with Djokovic doesn’t start until Day 2. Top-ranked Nadal was to play earlier today against Victor Estrella Burgos.