The Australian Open, the year’s first major, kicks off with an upset Down Under.
MELBOURNE, Australia — 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 at the Australian Open, the No. 52-ranked Rogers broke the 2014 French Open finalist’s serve four times in Rod Laver Arena.
It marked 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.
“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. There has been a lot of positive feedback, which has been nice.”
Halep, a two-time quarterfinalist in Australia, said she had been hampered by pain in her left knee that was compounded 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, 13thseeded Venus Williams improved on her first-round exit from last year to advance with 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 advancing with a 7-5, 6-4 win over Marina Erakovic.
Olympic gold medalist 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 victory over Rebecca Sramkova.
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.
No. 27 Irina-Camelia Begu advanced and, in two all-American matches, Samantha Crawford beat Lauren Davis 4-6, 6-3, 6-0 and Alison Riske beat Madison Brengle 7-5, 6-3.
Two seeded players lost early matches, with Varvara Lepchenko beating No. 19 Kiki Bertens 7-5, 7-6 (5) and former No. 1-ranked Jelena Jankovic beating No. 26 Laura Siegemund 6-1, 1-6, 6-4.
Fifth-seeded Kei Nishikori needed three hours, 34 minutes to advance, beating Andrey Kuznetsov 7-5, 1-6, 6-4, 7-6 (6), 6-2.
There were two early 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.