Bencic can’t capitalize on upset
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA >> Two days after her upset win over 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 on Wednesday (Australia time) 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. 124thranked Kumkhum a spot in the third round for the first time.
“I tried to reset and focus on the next match,” Bencic said. “I think it was also a very tough second round, for me the toughest I could get. I played her a couple of times and it’s just very difficult for me to play her.”
Second-ranked Caroline Wozniacki was able to avoid a second-round upset, fending off two match points and rallied from 5-1 down to win the last six games in the third set.
Former No. 1-ranked Wozniacki used her experience to save match points in the seventh game of the deciding set against No. 119-ranked Jana Fett, who was making her main draw debut at a major, and eventually pull off a 3-6, 6-2, 7-5 win.
A loss for Wozniacki would have seriously opened up the bottom half of the draw following the first-round defeats of 2017 finalist Williams, U.S. Open champion Sloane Stephens and No. 10-seeded CoCo
Vandeweghe.
No. 4-seeded Elina Svitolina is the next highestranked player on that side, and she next plays 15-yearold qualifier Marta Kostyuk — the youngest player to win main draw matches at Melbourne Park since Martina Hingis in 1996.
Kostyuk, who entered the season-opening major ranked No. 521, followed up her first-round win over 25th-seeded Peng Shuai with a 6-3, 7-5 victory over wild-card entry Olivia Rogowska. As Australian Open junior champion, Kostyuk got a wildcard into the qualifying draw. She won three three-set matches to reach the main draw and is already guaranteed
around $143,000.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga rallied from 5-2 in the fifth to overcome Denis Shapovalov 3-6, 6-3, 1-6, 7-6 (4), 7-5 in a 3-hour, 37-minute match.
No. 6 Marin Cilic beat Joao Sousa 6-1, 7-5, 6-2 and advanced along with No. 10 Pablo Carreno Busta, who was leading 6-2, 3-0 when Gilles Simon retired from their second-round match with a thigh injury.
No. 23 Gilles Muller outlasted Malek Jaziri in five sets, Kyle Edmund had a straight sets win over Denis Istomin — who beat then defending-champion Novak Djokovic in the second round here last year — and Andreas Seppi beat Yoshihito Nishioka 6-1, 6-3, 6-4.