Second seeds out as past champs move on

Women’s top seed Sara Sorribes Tormo showed enough in her first round match to prove she will be hard to knock over at the business end of the tournament.

Up against Argentinan qualifier Nadia Podoroska, Sorribes Tormo needed 58 minutes and three breaks of serve to win the opening set, with both players happy to slug it out from the back of the court.

With the advantage, the 22-year-old, who is currently ranked 81st in the world, then turned on the style, dominating the 299th–ranked Podoroska in the second set to take it 6-1.

Third seed and defending champion Marta Kostyuk was far from her best against Chinese Taipei qualifier Kai-Chen Chang, but it mattered little as the Ukrainian 16-year-old comfortably won 6-3, 6-4.

Arina Rodionova’s 6-3, 7-5 upset win over second seed Nao Hibino headlined a strong day for the Australian women’s contingent.

Three other Australian’s also made it through to the second round, with Queensland wildcard Lizette Cabrera defeating ACT qualifier Alison Bai 6-3, 6-3, Victorian wildcard Zoe Hives accounting for Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina 7-6, 6-4, and Victorian qualifier Belinda Woolcock defying her ranking of 774 to get by countrywoman Naiktha Bains 6-3, 7-6.

Asia Muhammad, who took out the title in 2017, showed she could be a contender once again following a 6-4, 7-5 triumph over Russian fifth seed  Irina Khromacheva from Russia, while Great Britain’s Katie Swan and Romania’s Irina Maria Bara also moved through.

A barrage of aces by his opponent proved no obstacle for Queensland’s Maverick Banes as he took down tournament second seed Lloyd Harris 6-4, 7-5 in men’s second round action.

Another Australian looked set for a huge upset on centre court when wildcard Luke Saville claimed the opening set against top seed Mirza Basic from Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Basic rallied to take the second set 7-5 before breaking Saville’s serve again to win 3-6, 7-5, 6-3.

Defending men’s champion and ninth seed, Stephane Robert, needed three sets to defeat Russia’s Alexander Zhurbin 6-2, 4-6, 6-3.

In the remaining games, Polish fifth seed Kamil Majchrzak defeated Israel’s Dudi Sela 6-3, 4-6, 6-1, China’s Zhe Li took down Japanese seventh seed Hiroki Moriya 6-3, 6-4, Victorian qualiifier Jeremy Beale took care of Brazilian 15th seed Guilherme Clezar 6-2, 6-4, Great Britain’s Jay Clarke was too good for Italian alternate Alessandro Bega 6-1, 6-4, and Japanese 12th seed Go Soeda eased past New South Wales’ Christopher O’Connell 6-4, 6-2.

Play gets underway on Thursday from 11am, and conclude with the first night game of the tournament at approximately 7pm between Australian fourth seed Marc Polmans and Germany’s Sebastian Fanselow.