The excitement of day 1 action was somewhat quelled by rain showers that hit Melbourne Park around 2:30 pm on day 1.
Thankfully the rain came a bit later than expected and also Melbourne has three marvellous venues that have retractable roofing.
With Roger Federer on Rod Laver Arena court and Caroline Wozniacki playing in Melbourne Arena the rain started falling. At first there was some hope it may come and go and not affect play too much however as time went on it persisted and many matches were held over until Tuesday.
There was at least still plenty of action inside the stadium courts involving Australians.
World no. 1 women’s player Ash Barty overcame a slow start against 2018 US Open quarterfinalist Lesia Tsurenko from Ukraine. The Ukrainian is making a comeback from injury so was a dangerous first round opponent having been ranked at no. 23 just under a year ago.
Barty went on to win 5-7, 6-1, 6-1.
Sam Stosur failed to capitalise on many opportunities against young USA qualifier Catherine McNally. Both players earned 12 break point opportunities throughout the match however McNally converted five to Stosur’s one.
In other matches to be completed on day one that involved Australians we saw Lizette Cabrera lose a tight one against Ann Li from the USA. Li took the match in two tie-breakers 7-6(4), 7-6(10).
Australian Open wildcard winner John-Patrick Smith lost his match to Argentine’s Guido Pella 6-3, 7-5, 6-4.
Wildcard recipient Andrew Harris lost to Italy’s Matteo Berrettini the no. 8 seed. The match was completed in 1 hour 54 minutes with the score being 6-3,6-1, 6-3.
Day two will see several Australian’s that were due to play on day one playing their matches, along with all remaining Australians. It will be a huge day to follow.
