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Americans & Collegians Down Under, Day Two

Aussie Open Day 2

SPOILER ALERT: Australian Open results below!

 

Day 1 stunk for Americans and former college players. Fortunately, Day 2 was a bit better.

The big story, in my mind, was Lucky Loser Bernarda Pera’s victory over Qualifier Blinkova out on Court 15. Though the two ladies are ranked pretty closely (Pera is 123 and Blinkova is 138), Pera, after losing in the final round of Qualifying, capitalized on the opportunity to be in her second Slam Main Draw and won in a decisive manner over her 19 year old opponent. It must’ve felt especially sweet after losing to Blinkova in the 3rd round of the US Open this past Summer!

Here’s the rundown from Day 2:

Men’s Singles (American players in bold red, Collegians in bold blue)

Novak Djokovic d. Donald Young  6-1 6-2 6-4
Juan Martin del Potro d. Frances Tiafoe 6-3 6-4 6-3
Tennys Sandgren (Tennessee) d. Jeremy Chardy 6-4 7-6 6-2
Tim Smyczek d. Alexei Popyrin 6-3 6-7 6-3 6-3
Sam Querrey d. Feliciano Lopez 6-3 6-4 6-2
Denis Kudla d. Stevie Johnson (USC) 6-7 6-3 7-6 6-2
Albert Ramos-Vinolas d. Jared Donaldson  6-2 6-3 6-4

Women’s Singles (American players in bold red, Collegians in bold blue)

Jo Konta d. Madison Brengle  6-3 6-1
Madison Keys d. Qiang Wang  6-1 7-5
Mirjana Lucic-Baroni d. Shelby Rogers 7-6 5-7 6-2
Vavara Lepchenko v. Anastasija Sevastova 3-6 6-3 6-2
Barbora Strycova d. Kristie Ahn (Stanford)  6-1 7-5
Lauren Davis d. Jana Cepelova 6-7 6-3 6-1
Aliaksandra Sasnovich d. Christina McHale  6-3 6-2
Bernarda Pera d. Anna Blinkova 6-2 6-2

I feel like every Slam in the past 10 years has come down to putting pressure on whichever Americans make it through the first couple of rounds. That’s got to be so tough on these players. So, instead of doing that, let me just wish them well as they battle in their Round 2 matches.

Here’s what’s on the schedule for Wednesday (Tuesday night in the US):

Nicole Gibbs (Stanford) faces 30 seed Kiki Bertens
Mackie McDonald (UCLA) faces 3 seed Grigor Dmitrov
Ryan Harrison faces 31 seed Pablo Cuevas

There are also several Americans and former Collegians in the Doubles competition which gets underway tonight as well. You can see the full draws here as well as on the Australian Open App. Matches are being aired live in the US on both the Tennis Channel and ESPN2. Good luck everyone!

 

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