No. 4 Halep upset on first day
American Rogers breaks Romanian four times in win.
MELBOURNE — 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 the center court.
Playing just her second main draw match at the Australian Open, the No. 52-ranked Rogers broke the 2014 French Open finalist’s s e r ve four t i mes 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.
Her only previous win against a top 10 player was in 2014, when she beat then No. 8-ranked 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.”
Halep, a two-time quarterfinalist in Australia, said she’d been hampered by pain in her left knee that was com- Andy Murray (1) vs. Illya Marchenko Stan Wawrinka (4) vs. Martin Klizan Kei Nishikori (5) d. Andrey Kuznetsov 5-7, 6-1, 6-4, 6-7 (6), 6-2 Marin Cilic (7) vs. Jerzy Janowicz Tomas Berdych (10) d. Luca Vanni 6-1, ret. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (12) vs. Thiago Monteiro Nick Kyrgios (14) vs. Gastao Elias Roger Federer (17) vs. Jurgen Melzer Bernard Tomic (27) vs. Thomaz Bellucci Angelique Kerber (1) vs. Lesia Tsurenko Shelby Rogers d. Simona Halep (4) 6-3, 6-1 Garbine Muguruza (7) d. Marina Erakovic 7-5, 6-4 Svetlana Kuznetsova (8) vs. Mariana Duque-Marino Carla Suarez Navarro (10) vs. Jana Cepelova Elina Svitolina (11) vs. Galina Voskoboeva Venus Williams (13) d. Kateryna Kozlova 7-6 (5), 7-5 Roberta Vinci (15) vs. CoCo Vandeweghe Zheng Shuai (20) vs. Aliaksandra Sasnovich Monica Puig (29) d. Patricia Maria Tig 6-0, 6-1 pounded by the pressure of the match.
“Definitely (Rogers) played well. I think she played very high standard,” Halep said. “She was aggressive, and she hit very strong.”
Unlike Halep, 13th-seeded Venus Williams improved on her first-round exit from last year to advance 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 had to fend off three break-point chances at 1-4 in the second set before advanc- ing with a 7-5, 6-4 win over Marina Erakovic.
Olympic gold medali st Monica Puig raced through her opening match, beating Patricia Tig 6-0, 6-1. Duan Yingying was among the early winners with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Rebecca Sramkova.
Fifth-seeded Kei Nishikori needed 3 hours, 34 minutes to advance, beating Andrey Kuznetsov 7-5, 1-6, 6-4, 7-6 (6), 6-2.
T h e r e we r e t wo e a r l y retirements in the men’s draw. No. 10-seeded Tomas Berdych, the 2010 Wimbledon finalist, was leading 6-1 when Luca Vanni retired from their match, and Jeremy Chardy was leading 4-0 when Nicolas Almagro retired with an injured right calf muscle in the first set.
Ryan Harrison beat Nicolas Mahut 6-3, 6-4, 6-2.