The Free Press Journal

Sofia Kenin survives scare

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Sure, Sofia Kenin struggled in her first match as a defending champion at a Grand Slam tournament.

The 22-year-old from Florida struggled with jitters at the Australian Open. Struggled with her shots. Struggled against an opponent who's never won a tour-level match.

Kenin, though, knows all that really matters: Who can claim the final point. And, eventually, she managed to do just that Tuesday (Monday EST) at Melbourne Park, setting aside an early deficit and beating 133rd-ranked Australian wild-card entry Maddison Inglis 7-5, 6-4.

The woman Kenin defeated for the title in last year's final in Melbourne, two-time major champion Garbiñe Muguruza, also advanced to the second round, defeating Margarita Gasparyan of Russia 6-4, 6-0.

Alcaraz eliminated Botic Van de Zandschulp, a 25-yearold from the Netherland­s who is ranked 151st, by a score of 6-1, 6-4, 6-4.

A seeded woman exited the tournament when Ann Li, a 20-year-old American, defeat No. 31 Zhang Shuai 6-2, 6-0 in just 47 minutes to improve to 5-0 this season.

Nadal finished off a 6-3 64,6-1 win in just under two hours in his first competitiv­e match in months — he didn't play for Spain at the ATP Cup last week because of the back stiffness.

He'll next play American qualifier Michael Mmoh, who outlasted Viktor Troicki 7-6 (3) 6-7 (3) 3-6 7-6 (3) 7-5.

Fourth-seeded Daniil Medvedev extended his winning streak to 15 matches with a 6-2 6-2 6-4 win over Vasek Pospisil and seventhsee­ded Andrey Rublev beat Yannick Hanfmann 6-3 6-3 64.

Top-ranked Ash Barty dominated in her first Grand Slam match in more than a year, dropping only 10 points in a 6-0 6-0 rout of Danka Kovinic.

Garbiñe Muguruza, the Australian Open runner-up last year, defeated Margarita Gasparyan 6-4, 6-0.

Victoria Azarenka, a twotime Australian Open champion set of a 7-5, 6-4 loss to Jessica Pegula of the US.

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