by Lisa-Marie Burrows
The biggest shock of the opening day of the 2012 Australian Open was the loss of 19thseed, Flavia Pennetta of Italy, who lost in three sets to Nina Bratchikova of Russia 3-6, 6-1, 2-6. In what was expected to be a straightforward victory for the Italian, the Russian demonstrated her fighting qualities, despite the comeback challenge mounted by Pennetta and managed to remain calm and secure the victory.
Defending champion Kim Clijsters debuted on the Rod Laver Arena for her first match in her campaign to successfully lift the trophy for the second, consecutive year. “Aussie Kim” as she is so fondly known, defeated Maria Joao Koehler of Portugal 7-5, 6-1 and will face Anna Tatishviliv in the second round after her defeat of local Ashleigh Barty 6-2, 7-6 (4).
Victoria Azarenka went through in straight sets very comfortably against Britain’s Heather Watson. The No. 3 seed only dropped the first game and then went on to win the next consecutive twelve games, securing her place in the second round with a very comfortable 6-1, 6-0 victory for the Belarusian.
“Well I didn’t want to (waste any time),” said Azarenka. “I woke up so early this morning and now I want to go back to sleep! It was a good way to start the tournament. I am happy with my win.”
She will now meet Australian Casey Dellacqua after she beat Bojana Jovanovski from Serbia in straight sets 6-3, 6-2.
No. 8 seed Agnieska Radwanska, had a bit of a scare against American Bethanie Mattek-Sands. The Pole battled for seventy-five minutes for the first set, but lost it in the tiebreak. Radwanksa fought back in the next two sets to book her place in the second round after a 6-7, 6-4, 6-2 win.
Daniela Hantchukova also faced another American Varvara Lepchenko. It was another first set steal for the American as she surprised the Slovakian and took the first she 6-4. But her dreams of victory over the 20th seed went up in smoke, as Hantchukova found her feet in the second set and stormed back to take the next two sets 6-3, 6-2.
Last year’s runner up, Li Na had no problems coming through her first round match against Ksenia Pervak of Kazakhstan, 6-3, 6-1 was the final score for the No. 5 seed from China. She will now face Australian Olivia Rogowska in the second round, after she also dispatched of her Swedish opponent, Sofia Arvidsson by the same score line, 6-3, 6-1 in 69 minutes.
On Margaret Court Arena, Jelena Jankovic was heavily dominant during the rallies to dismiss Laura Robson of Great Britain off court after losing only two games in the entire match and bageled the young Brit in the second set. Jankovic easily took the match 6-2, 6-0 despite thoughts of their encounter being more highly contested.
No. 26 seed, Spaniard, Anabel Medina Garrigues featured on court 18 today against Eva Bimerova of the Czech Republic and made short work of her opponent as she marched into the second round with a 6-3, 6-3 victory. Despite playing under the hot conditions, the Spaniard proved the tougher player with the most consistency and will be pleased with the result of today.
The final evening match of the day on Rod Laver Arena saw world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark beat Anastasia Rodionova of Australia in front of a packed stadium. The Dane has never been beaten before in the first round and she kept that accolade in the evening match today. Sore wrist or not, from 2-2 Wozniacki was very solid and comfortably progresses through to round two in an hour and fifteen minutes. She imposed herself from the onset and used her hard-hitting rallies to push her through to the next stage.
In her on-court interview, she talked about her recent wrist injury in Sydney:
“Well it has been a lot of hard work in the off-season and I was a little bit nervous about my wrist when it happened. But I am happy that I could play full-out tonight.”
Lisa-Marie Burrows is a qualified LTA Community Tennis Coach from England and a trainee sports journalist, in the final stages of completion of her course, enabling her to put her passion and enthusiasm for tennis into words and write articles about the events on the WTA and ATP Tours. She has taken great pleasure in traveling across Europe to watch tennis and cover the events, most recently the Davis Cup tie between Spain and France and the Valencia Open 500 tournament. Lisa-Marie is a member of the International Press Association and a contributing journalist for its online magazine, IMPress. She has contributed articles for various leading websites including www.tennisscoop.co.uk,www.olympictennis.net and most recently for www.tennisgrandstand,com andwww.worldtennismagazine.com. Lisa-Marie operates her tennis website called Tennis News and Views where you can read her reports and updates for the latest tennis information and keep up to date with the news on Twitter @TennisNewsViews.