Australian Open - Day One

  Some tasty Day 1 matches, with Fed getting the late-night, main-court match rather than local boy Kyrgios. Nice to have a Slam when all of the big four are in action, although remains to be seen if two of the big four have much impact.
   This will be Tommy Haas's last AO as he had said 2017 will be his last season. Be nice if he can do well but he's not been on the circuit for many months. As most have said on other topics, Djoko is probably favourite and it's difficult to see beyond a Djoko-Andy final. Novak's first match could be his trickiest.
  The women? It's wide open. Could make a good case out for half a dozen players.

Personally, do think you should call it Day One otherwise where do we discuss Day Two matches?

As for the opening day matches well Murray's plan is clear - get the job done as cleanly and quickly as possible. Three sets in under two hours would be ideal against Marchenko. Federer plays in the evening and should have few problems dispatching Melzer. Kuznetsov V Nishikori may be interesting as will Wawrinka V Klizan. Evens is also in action and plays Argentine player Bagnis who I believe he beat in Sydney. A good opportunity for him.

At CC's suggestion, I've changed the heading on this topic to read AO - Day 1.

Nishikori wins against Kuznetsov but it too him five sets and three and three quarter hours to do so.

Watching Murray's opener v Marchenko.

Andy not at his sharpest and made to work hard in taking first set 7-5. He's now a break down in second, and have to say that on evidence of past 15 minutes of play, you wouldn't know for sure which of the two contestants is World No. 1

Andy will no doubt crank it up soon. The way Marchenko is performing, it's vital that he does ...!!

Murray wins in straight sets without getting out of second gear. Disjointed performance with not a lot to shout about. He kept a lid on his emotions to a great deal but that is about it. Still you cannot win a slam in the first round but you can as sure as hell lose one.

Sounds like a bit of a struggle for Andy, but Slams are often won by a player who has early-round difficulties. At least he wasn't take to five, as was Nishi. A shock in the women's, with 4th seed Halep smashed in straight sets.

sirfredperry wrote:Sounds like a bit of a struggle for Andy, but Slams are often won by a player who has early-round difficulties. At least he wasn't take to five, as was Nishi. A shock in the women's, with 4th seed Halep smashed in straight sets.

How very, very true !

And even the greatest legends of the sport (all respect to Nishi) have been known to encounter serious Round One troubles : I still remember (my all-time favourite   ) Bjorn Borg very nearly coming a cropper at the first hurdle in Wimbledon as the defending champ.

So I looked it up ..... found it was Victor Amaya, who came close to taking out the great man, back in 1978. But Borg eventually pulled through in five. And of course then went to take his third successive crown at SW19.

Murray obviously made to work a bit. Nice for him to get through in 3 sets though.

Good win for Evans too.

Stan in a bit of trouble?

Kerber wastes an MP and has now been taken to a third set by Tsurenko. Shock on? The women's titles was wide open anyway, and with Halep gone (and now perhaps Kerber) it will be even wider.
  Stan has just survived three break points and it's still on serve mid-way thru the third against Klizan. 1-1 in sets.

Later: Kerber comes thru 6-2 in decider. Stan now two sets to one up.

I seem to recall Djoko had a couple of quite flat performances early in last year's tournament, especially the 'mug off' with Simon, but then was very good in the SF and final. I don't think Andy will be too worried about his performance today - may have liked to serve better in particular, but will have knocked some of the competitive rust off, and at least didn't drop a set.

I think sometimes we over-estimate the correlation match to match (other than where there are long 5 setters that obviously have a physical impact on the next round) - I'd be unsurprised to see Andy winning the next match for assorted baked goods (or struggling through a 5 set epic)...

Good win for Evans. Quite surprising considering he was in the final in Sydney a couple of days ago, so hasn't had much time to adjust (and it's quite common for these middle ranked players to follow up a good tournament with a bad one). Cilic got taken to five today (indeed was 2 sets down), so it's not a bad time for Dan to be playing him next up.

Was just looking at the live points - if Novak wins the tournament, Andy has to reach the semi final to maintain number 1. No other scenario with #1 in play.
#3 to #5 are close, indeed Raonic has dropped from 3 to 5 in the live points with his SF points dropping off.
#6 to #9 also quite close.

A freaky thought - If Federer was to lose in the first round, he would fall out of the top 32...

Fed is one set all with Melzer while Stan has squeezed thru in five v Klizan.

Stan was more than a little fortunate, with Klizan just making too many errors after getting the break for 4-3 in the last set. Too passive for me from Stan, and really not a fan of the play he made at 4-4 30-30 going right at Klizan off the easiest putaway forehand you'll ever see (sitting up nice and high a couple of yards from the net, after Klizan fluffed a half-volley).

Feds looks quite slow, whether it's rustiness or his age finally catching up with him I don't know, but I haven't seen him move this sluggishly ever.

Fed is thru in four. The last two sets were both 6-2. Bound to be a bit rusty and Melzer is no mug. Bouchard has just won in straights. Would expect her to start going back up the rankings.
A lot of the top guys will probably have easier matches in round two than they did today. They'll all play better, too, I reckon.

I would never read too much into opening few rounds. Even going five sets isn't too big a deal provided they don't keep on doing it.

Murray has quite a nice next few matches - Rublev, Querry/De Minaur, then probably Isner (Pouille lost today). Stan has Steve Johnson and Nishikori has Chardy.

If Djokovic beats Verdasco he will play Dodig or Istomin.

Round One in slams I liken to the old days of the Grand National. Strongly fancied or not you can fall at the first fence - no one is safe. It is all about negotiating that first obstacle and then trying to find your rhythm. Hunt around for a few rounds avoiding the pitfalls and by the QF's assess the survivors and then the real race begins.