Estonia's Kanepi eliminates defending champion Kenin

Reigning champion and fourth seed at the Australian Open, Sofia Kenin was surprisingly eliminated on Thursday by 35-year-old Estonian veteran and 95th in the world Kaia Kanepi, which won by a forceful 6-3 and 6-2. The physical and powerful tennis of the winner, who came from playing the final of one of the WTA 500 tournaments that took place in Melbourne last week, the Gippsland Trophy in which she lost against Elise Mertens, choked the American, who he was unable to celebrate his 100th victory on the circuit. “I haven't been able to handle the pressure. I'm not used to this, so right now I have to figure out how to play at that level that I played at. Because today and in other games, he simply has not been there, “said Kenin, visibly sad and with tears in his eyes during the press conference.

One more year, and it's been eight, the winner of the first Grand Slam of the year fails in her attempt to repeat the title. No one has done it since Victoria Azarenka with her hits in 2012 and 2013. Kanepi served phenomenally and landed 22 winners with 10 aces.

Pliskova, Barty, Bencic, Mertens and Svitolina, go ahead

The rest of the favorites complied. Czech Karolina Pliskova (6th), who had not yielded a single break option in her first match in the tournament, did not get entangled with the dangerous American Danielle Collins, whom she beat 7-5 and 6-2 to face her compatriot Karolina Muchova in the next phase. Ashleigh Barty, first seed, got rid of her compatriot Daria Gavrilova 6-1, 7-6 (7) with good feelings confirmed after the double donut that he starred in the first round. She will now face the Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova. Belinda Bencic (11th) did suffer against veteran Svetlana Kuznetsova, who forced the third set to fall 7-5, 2-6 and 6-4. The Swiss will face the Belgian Elise Mertens (18th), who beat the Chinese Zhu (7-6 (8) and 6-1) without excessive problems. Elina Svitolina (5th) was able without excessive problems with the American promise of 16 years Coco Gauff, whom he won by 6-4 and 6-3. The Ukrainian will face Yulia Putintseva on Saturday.

Schedule and results.