Calmness of Medvedev and Rublev

While the world continues to discuss the scandal with the expulsion of Novak Djokovic, the Australian Open has started in Melbourne. And if in the women's tournament the Russian team could not do without losses, then in the men's first round barrier all four athletes originally declared for participation overcame. The only exception was Roman Safiullin, who replaced the injured Kasper Ruud. Two days ago, the Norwegian twisted his leg in training and did not have time to fully recover.

However, Safiullin did not give up without a fight. He lost the first set, but then he never took less than five games, and twice he even brought the matter to a tie-break. As a result, the confrontation with Alex Molchan lasted 3 hours and 29 minutes, after which the Slovenian tennis player could move around the court with great difficulty. In the middle of the fourth set, his legs began to cramp, which the Russian almost took advantage of. But the opponent nevertheless confirmed the status of the favorite and made it to the next round.

In addition to Safiullin, the strongest representatives of Russia in the men's singles entered the courts of Melbourne on the second day. Daniil Medvedev in training mode coped with Henry Laaksonen, for the first time not allowing the Finn to take a single set. Until now, the tennis players have met twice - in 2016, their paths crossed at Futures in Switzerland, and three years later they shared the court in the Davis Cup match - and in both cases, the Swiss representative managed to create difficulties for the Russian, albeit local ones. And at first it might seem that this time the 91st racket of the world would not make exceptions. He immediately made a break, but then lost six games in a row.

It cannot be said that Medvedev looked perfect. After reaching the grid, the Russian won only half of the draws and allowed too much for a player of his level of marriage. In three sets, he brought himself 21 actively won draws in his asset, but at the same time he made 23 unforced errors. The lion's share of them fell on the final, third set, the fate of which was decided only in a tie-break. True, the Russian quickly took the lead in it and did not miss the advantage - 6:1, 6:4, 7:6 (7:3).

It was much easier for Andrei Rublev, who spent only 86 minutes at the Margaret Court Arena. The first meeting in his career with Gianluca Mager was very successful - in total, the Russian lost only seven games, three of which were in the first set. Like Medvedev, already at the start, he gave his counterpart his own pitch, but subsequently he did not allow such missteps again. In the remaining time, the Italian earned four break points, but failed to convert a single one - 3:6, 2:6, 2:6.

In general, Rublev can be pleased with his start.

Yes, he hit the first ball every other time (58%), but if he succeeded, then Mager had nothing to answer.

In total, the Russian won 47 out of 64 rallies on the pitch, 13 of which were aces.

It is noteworthy that he made the same number of unforced errors, which is quite small, given Andrey's brightly attacking style.

For comparison, in the confrontation with Elias Ymer at the Davis Cup (the last official three-set match of the athlete), there were 33 of those.

In the second round, Rublev will face off against Richardas Berankis, with whom he played for the last and only time in 2014.

At the Challenger in Astana, the Lithuanian won in two sets and advanced to the second round.

As for Medvedev, brawler Nick Kyrgios will become his opponent.

Torments of Karatsev

A day earlier, Karen Khachanov and Aslan Karatsev recognized their future opponents. And although both failed to resolve all issues in the shortest possible time, the matches were not alike in terms of intensity. If the first dealt with Denis Kudla relatively calmly, then the second, together with Jaume Munyar, made an almost five-hour thriller. All five games were required to determine the winner, two of which ended in a tie-break.

The fact that the meeting turned out to be so tense is solely to blame for Karatsev himself, who made a total of 107 unforced errors - 72 more than his opponent.

Yes, there were also a lot of actively won points (87), but it was not possible to fully compensate for the abundance of misses.

Moreover, the constant blunders made the Russian nervous, who already earned a penalty point in the second set.

First, in his hearts, he knocked the ball into the stands, and then broke his racket.

Karatsev managed to come to his senses only when the score was 1:2 in batches.

In the remaining two, he acted noticeably more confidently and more often hit than smeared (43:38).

Despite this, he still allowed Munyar to take his serve three times, but this was not enough to reach the second round - 3:6, 7:6 (7:1), 6:7 (3:7), 6:4, 6:4.

Aslan's next opponent will be American Mackenzie McDonald.

Khachanov also gave the opponent the first set, but managed to pull himself together pretty quickly and confidently took the remaining three.

Yes, he performed imperfectly, as evidenced by almost fifty unforced errors, but he did not experience problems like Karatsev.

17 innings right through and verified exits to the grid helped to do their job and qualify for the second round.

There he will face off against the Frenchman Benjamin Bonzi.

The failure of four Russians

In turn, the Russian tennis players could not follow the example of their colleagues and did not have the best first round of the Australian Open. Initially, eight athletes were declared for the tournament, but in the first two days their representation was halved. Vera Zvonareva, Anastasia Potapova, Ekaterina Aleksandrova and Varvara Gracheva suffered defeats. Moreover, if the first two were not lucky with the draw, since their opponents were seeded Elise Mertens and Camilla Giorgi, respectively, then the rest could not cope with weaker rivals.

Alexandrova was unable to oppose anything to the 105th racket of the world, Bernard Pere from the United States, and Gracheva was beaten by Lucia Bronzetti, who occupies the 145th line in the ranking of the Women's Tennis Association (WTA). Varvara won the first set, but took only five games in the remaining two. For the Italian, this victory was the first in the Grand Slam tournaments.

On the first day of the competition, only Veronika Kudermetova managed to win, breaking the resistance of the American Claire Liu. A day later, her initiative was supported by three other compatriots. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova gave only three games to Anna Bondar, and Daria Kasatkina was a little more generous to Stefanie Vögele. The Swiss, who got to the Australian Open through qualification, fought hard in the first game, but in the second she was helpless - 6:3, 6:1. Lyudmila Samsonova had a little more difficult time, but the 212th racket of the world, Emina Bektas, could not create a sensation.

It is noteworthy that it was Samsonova who faced the most difficult opponent in the second round.

For a ticket next time she will have to compete with the 31st seeded Marketa Vondrousova.

Pavlyuchenkova will face 37-year-old Samantha Stosur, who received a wild-card from the organizers, while Kasatkina and Kudermetova will face Magda Lynette and Elena-Gabriela Ruse, respectively.