Second round action is complete in Melbourne, Australia for the 2022 Australian Open. Here’s who’s made it so far.
Men’s Singles
Our seeded men’s singles player have, for the most part, proceeded to the third round. That includes 17th seed Frenchman, Gael Monfils, who defeated Alexander Bublik, is easy straight sets. Bublik held his first service game but didn’t hold another one until the third and last set. But Monfils only needed one break to take the match.
Third seed Alexander Zverev also beat Australian John Millman in straight sets. Eighteen seed Aslan Karatsev defeated young American, Mackenzie McDonald. Although McDonald took the first set 6-3.
Marin Cilic made it through in 4 sets, taking the last set to a tiebreak. Twentieth seed American, Taylor Fritz, made it through in straight sets.
Twenty-sixth seed, Grigor Dimitrov, lost to Frenchman, Benoit Pare. And in probably the biggest upset of all, top Brit Andy Murray fell in straight sets to unseeded qualifier Taro Daniel from Japan.
In 2019, Murray suffered a bad hip injury he thought could be the end of his career. He hasn’t played in an Australian Open since that year. Tournament managers granted him a wild card this year and he was hoping for 2021 to be a good comeback season.
“It depends on many things,” said Murray of his future in the game. “But obviously a performance like tonight is not something I find motivating at this stage. I’m not sure I’ve lost a match to someone ranked outside [the Top] 100 before in a slam. I don’t know. I don’t think I have. So from that respect it’s not a great loss for me.”
Women’s Singles
For ladies’ singles second round action, there weren’t too many upsets. Each match was completed in straight sets.
The most familiar names to proceed to the third round include Ashleigh Barty, Kaia Kanepi, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Sorana Cirstea, Danielle Collins, Aryna Sabalenka, Alize Cornet, and of course, our defending champion, Naomi Osaka.
Hometown favorite, Barty, will be looking for her first Australian Open title, and she might have the dark horse luck charm looking down on her favorably this season. However, she could face Osaka sooner rather than later if things go both their ways with a potential fourth round match up on Friday.
Osaka bageled her first set against American Madison Brengle in 20 minutes. While Barty took care of her opponent in under an hour.
Stay tuned for more updates heading into the final weekend in Melbourne!
