One and done for Bencic
MELBOURNE, Australia — Two days after her upset win against Venus Williams, Belinda Bencic is out of the Australian Open.
Bencic was on a high after beating 2017 finalist Williams on the center court in the first round, but started flatly on Hisense Arena today and lost 6-1, 6-3 to powerful hitting Thai qualifier Luksika Kumkhum.
The 20-year-old Swiss, who combined with Roger Federer to win the Hopman Cup in the lead-up to the season’s first major, saved three match points on her serve before netting a backhand to give No. 124th-ranked Kumkhum a spot in the third round for the first time.
A 15-year-old qualifier and No.4 seed Elina Svitolina were among three Ukrainian women who had matches starting simultaneously on Day 3 — and all progressed to the third round.
Former Australian junior champion Marta Kostyuk, who entered the season-opening major ranked No.521, followed up her opening win against 25th-seeded Peng Shuai with a 6-3, 7-5 victory against wild card entry Olivia Rogowska.
Kostyuk already is the youngest player since Martina Hingis in 1996 to win a main-draw match at the first major. That came after three three-set matches in qualifying over six hours.
Kostyuk is managed by Ivan Ljubicic, who works with Federer, and so gets the benefit of some first-rate analysis.
“Ivan is always helping me . . . after every match, he’s telling me what’s wrong,” she said.
Kostyuk’s progress is set to become more difficult, with a meeting against Svitolina in the next round.
While Kostyuk was playing on Margaret Court Arena, Svitolina, who won a tour-leading five titles in 2017, had a 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 win against Katerina Siniakova on the adjoining Rod Laver Arena.
Their fellow Ukrainian, Kateryna Bondarenko, beat No. 15-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-2, 6-3 in the day’s opening match on Melbourne Park’s third show court to reach the third round here for the third time.
On the men’s side, No. 10 Pablo Carreno Busta was leading 6-2, 3-0 when Gilles Simon retired from their secondround match with a leg injury.
Andreas Seppi beat Yoshihito Nishioka 6-1, 6-3, 6-4.
It wasn’t Maria Sharapova’s choice to miss the last Australian Open. That decision was taken out of her hands because of a doping ban following a failed test on her previous visit to Melbourne Park.
The five-time major champion said it was her choice to return, though, and she relished every moment of it in yesterday’s 6-1, 6-4 rout of Tatjana Maria.
“With that choice I know that I face difficulties and challenges on the court, and that I start from no ranking and that I might start on some outside courts, and I understand that and that’s part of the process,” said Sharapova, who was a contentious choice to represent the women’s champions last week at the official draw.
She was banned for 15 months after testing positive for meldonium, not long after the medication was added to the list of banned substances, when she was in Australia in 2016.
So when Serena Williams won the 2017 Australian Open, Sharapova was sick in bed and watching on TV.
She returned in April and, because of her slide down the rankings, needed some wild card entries to enter tournaments. She made her return to the majors at the U.S. Open, and finished the year ranked No.60.
“I learned what it feels like to be on the ground and seeing life from the ground, and I’m not shying away from any part of that,” she said. “I love what I do. I’m a competitor, and that’s why I continue to do it.”