Romanian tennis player Sorana Cirstea eliminated the two-time Wimbledon champion Czech player Petra Kvitova in the first round of the Australian Open. This is the second year in a row when Sorana Cirstea eliminated the 2019 Australian Open runner-up in the first round. The Romanian won by 2-0 (6:2, 6:2) for only 72 minutes. The 20th-seeded Petra Kvitova made a terrible match and did not show her usual play from the beginning to the end.
Another Romanian continues to advance in the tournament – the 14th-seeded Simona Halep. The 2018 Australian Open finalist beat the Polish Magdalena Frech by 2-0 (6:4, 6:3). Simona Halep closed the match for exactly an hour and a half, scoring 4 aces and making 25 winning shots.
In the second round, the winner of two Grand Slam titles will face the Brazilian player Beatriz Haddad Maia, who eliminated in the first round the American qualifier Katie Volynets.
The 24-year-old Australian Maddison Inglis achieved her first victory in the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament. She won by 2-0 (6:4, 6:2) over the Canadian Leylah Annie Fernandez, who only a few months ago was the runner-up of the 2021 US Open.
Maddison Inglis did not allow a single break in the match, and at the same time realized three breaks. In the next round, she will play with the American qualifier Hailey Baptiste, who beat the French player Caroline Garcia with 2-1 (4:6, 7:6, 6:3).
Seventh-seeded Polish player Iga Swiatek, Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina, the 6th-seeded Estonian Anett Kontaveit, and Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova had no problems with qualifying for the second round.