2020 champ crash out in 2nd round with straight sets defeat; Barty, Nadal secure easy win
Sofia Kenin’s emotional Australian Open defence ended in a second-round defeat on Thursday but top seed Ashleigh Barty overcame a blip to reach the last 16.
The highly-strung Kenin has struggled to handle expectations in her first Grand Slam title defence and admitted to having a few tears during a tense opening-round win on Tuesday.
The fourth seed shed more on Margaret Court Arena on Thursday after her 6-3, 6-2 defeat in 64 minutes to the Estonian world number 65, becoming the highest-ranked player to go out of the tournament.
“I felt like I wasn’t there, my head wasn’t there,” a teary-eyed Kenin admitted later.
A strong-serving Kanepi proved a bad match-up for Kenin, who had 22 unforced errors and offered little resistance as her title defence ended with a whimper.
Kanepi, however, has been in strong form, finishing runner-up in the warm-up Gippsland Trophy followed by a straight-sets victory over Latvia’s Anastasija Sevastova in the Open’s first round.
The 35-year-old plays 28th seed Donna Vekic of Croatia next.
Meanwhile world No 1 Barty cast friendship aside with a straight-sets victory over compatriot Daria Gavrilova, but appeared to lose focus serving for the match before closing out for a 6-1, 7-6 (9/7) win against her Fed Cup teammate.
Ukrainian fifth seed Elina Svitolina scored an efficient 6-4, 6-3 win over 16-year-old Coco Gauff.
Sixth seed Karolina Pliskova had few alarms in beating American Danielle Collins, a semi-finalist at Melbourne Park two years ago, 7-5, 6-2.
Swiss 12th seed Belinda Bencic was pushed harder by veteran Russian Svetlana Kutznetsova before coming through 7-5, 2-6, 6-4 in 2hr 39min.
Tsitsipas prevails in epic
World No 6 Stefanos Tsitsipas was pushed to a marathon five sets by wildcard Thanasi Kokkinakis before making the third round while Andrey Rublev extended his unbeaten start to the year.
Later, birthday boy Daniil Medvedev added another win to his red-hot streak as the Russian fourth seed demolished Roberto Carballes Baena to ease into the third round and second seed Rafael Nadal wrapped up proceedings on the show courts with a 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 win over Michael Mmoh.
Medvedev, who turned 25 on Thursday, powered past the Spaniard 6-2, 7-5, 6-1 on John Cain Arena for his 16th straight win dating back to November.
The popular Greek star dropped only four games in his first-round match, but faced a far sterner challenge from the 267th-ranked Australian. He finally came through 6-7 (5/7), 6-1, 6-1, 6-7 (5/7), 6-4
Kokkinakis, who has been plagued by injury and illness during his career, fought hard. With the home crowd becoming ever more vociferous in their support, he gave as good as he got in a close first set, with both players trading blows in long rallies and big serves.
The Australian saved two set points at 4-5 and took it to a tiebreaker, where he prevailed on the back of a Tsitsipas double fault. But the Greek’s superior firepower and fitness came to the fore in the second set and by the third Kokkinakis appeared to be running out of steam, unable to match Tsitsipas’ consistency.
He found a second wind, though, in the fourth set and after saving a match point at 4-5 took it to a fifth, buoyed by the energy of the crowd. However, Tsitsipas’ unrelenting return on serve wore him down and he got a decisive break in fifth game as Kokkinakis tired.
The 22-year-old next plays Swede Mikael Ymer, who beat promising Spanish teenager Carlos Alcaraz.
Seventh seed Rublev has been in impressive form and battled past Brazilian left-hander Thiago Monteiro 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (10/8) in workmanlike fashion.
He will next play veteran Spaniard Feliciano Lopez. The 39-year-old was taken five sets in his record-extending 75th consecutive Grand Slam before beating Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego 5-7, 3-6, 6-3, 7-5, 6-4. No one has made more consecutive Grand Slam appearances than Lopez, who is playing his record-extending 75th in a row, having not missed one since the French Open in 2002.
Elsewhere, world number 192 Mackenzie McDonald beat Borna Coric 6-4, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 to hand the Croatian 22nd seed the biggest upset of his career.
Italians Fabio Fognini and Salvatore Caruso had to be separated by an official during a furious argument after their five-set classic. Fognini, the 16th seed, prevailed 4-6, 6-2, 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (14/12) in nearly four hours after a fierce battle on John Cain Arena.