Not long after, No.
2-seeded Aryna Sabalenka served a dozen double-faults in the first set and
appeared to be on the brink of a second-round defeat before recovering to hold
off 100th-ranked Wang Xinyu 1-6, 6-4, 6-2.
Muguruza never managed
to earn a single break point and made a whopping 33 unforced errors, more than
twice her opponent’s total, in a 6-3, 6-3 loss to Alize Cornet under a bright
blue and cloudless sky at Rod Laver Arena on Thursday.
“A little bit
surprised about my level. I am a little disappointed, too,” said Muguruza, who
won the season-ending WTA Finals in 2021. ”I feel like my shots weren’t as
accurate and precise. I feel, also, my aggressive game wasn’t that aggressive
today.”
Here’s how unexpected that result was:
Muguruza is a two-time Grand Slam champion and a two-time major runner-up, too,
including making it to the final at the Australian Open in 2020.
And the 61st-ranked Cornet? She’s appearing
in her 63rd career major tournament — and 60th in a row — but never has been
beyond the fourth round.
Cornet will get a chance to equal that
showing when she plays Saturday, her 32nd birthday.
She called herself “a little bit (of) a
dinosaur.”
“I don’t know how many years I have left,”
Cornet said. “Today was a perfect gift I could give myself and I really hope
the journey’s going to go even farther for me.”
Sam Stosur’s 6-2, 6-2 loss to No. 10
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova ended the 2011 U.S. Open champion’s 20th, and last,
singles campaign at the Australian Open.
“I’ve done more than I ever thought
possible. I dreamed of winning a Grand Slam (singles title), and I couldn’t
have asked for anything more,” Stosur told the crowd in Kia Arena.
Muguruza said she didn’t feel at her best
physically and noted that the start of this season was “kind of stressful,”
because COVID-19 spread through her support team and she was apart from them
for two weeks.
Kontaveit, who lost to Muguruza in the
title match at the WTA Finals, was beaten 6-2, 6-3 by 19-year-old Clara Tauson
of Denmark.
“I just went in there believing I could
win, but it wasn’t like I have to win,” said Tauson, who will make her debut in
the third round at a major against 2019 Australian Open semifinalist Danielle
Collins. “It was more: ‘I can win, but we’ll see what happens.’”
Sabalenka finished with 19 double-faults,
including nine in her first two service games, in her win over Wang. She said
she regained her composure during a quick trip to the locker room following the
first set.
The U.S. Open and Wimbledon semifinalist
from last year said she had “a lot of experience of playing without the serve,”
and she’d reassured herself that she had enough other weapons to win “even if
you can’t serve.”
Sabalenka, who entered the year’s first
major with a chance of reaching the top ranking, has made a stuttering start to
2022, with her service woes including a combined 39 double-faults contributing
to first-round losses at tuneup events in Adelaide.
She faces No. 31-seeded Marketa
Vondrousova, the 2019 runner-up at Roland Garros, who beat Liudmila Samsonova
6-2, 7-5.
No. 7 Iga Swiatek, the 2020 French Open
champion, No. 19 Elise Mertens, Sorana Cirstea and Maddison Inglis, who beat
Hailey Baptiste 7-6 (4), 2-6, 6-2, were among the other women advancing. Zhang
Shuai of China moved into the third round when No. 12 Elena Rybakina retired
from their match while trailing 6-4, 1-0.
On the men’s side, fourth-seeded Stefanos
Tsitsipas beat Sebastian Baez 7-6 (1), 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-4 in a second-round
match featuring two former junior world No. 1 players.
Other winners among the men included No. 5
Andrey Rublev, No. 15 Roberto Bautista Agut, No. 20 Taylor Fritz, 2014 U.S.
Open champion Marin Cilic, No. 32 Alex de Minaur and 70th-ranked Maxime Cressy
of the U.S. No. 24 Dan Evans moved on when the player he was supposed to face
in the second round, Arthur Rinderknech, pulled out with an injured wrist.
Australian wild-card entry Chris O’Connell
upset 13th-seeded Diego Schwartzman 7-6 (6), 6-4, 6-4.
U.S. Open champion Daniil Medvedev, the
highest-ranked man in the draw after nine-time Australian Open champion Novak
Djokovic was deported for failing to meet the host country’s strict COVID-19
vaccination requirements, was playing Nick Kyrgios in a night match. -AP
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