The preliminary phase of the Australian Open started this Monday in Melbourne Park with a very positive day for the Spanish representatives. Four of the six competing made it to the second round.
In the men’s box, Mario Vilella (26 years old and 177th in the world) won 6-3 and 6-2 against Israeli Dudi Sela (36th and 381st) and will face Swedish Elias Ymer (25th and 170th) on Wednesday. I had no luck Bernabé Zapata, who despite being the sixth seed in qualifying, could not beat the Kazakh Dmitry Popko (25th and 180th), who won 6-1 and 7-5, with fewer errors (20-32) and more winning shots (18-9 than the Valencian).
In the women’s team, Andrea Lázaro (27 years and 144th) gave the bell by eliminating the first favorite, the Russian Anna Kalinskaya and, in addition, with authority (6-1 and 6-4). The Spanish caused many failures in her rival (33) and saved the four occasions she had to break her serve. The American Katie Volynets (180th) will now be measured by way of a seed. Rebeka Masarova also won, who beat the Czech Jesika Maleckova (27th and 234th) by a double 6-2 in 75 minutes. They will face the Ukrainian Daria Sigur (31st favorite). Cristina Bucsa passed over the Romanian Cristian Dinu (28th and 256th), whom he beat 6-1 and 6-0 in just 43 minutes with nine unforced errors and with just 19 points lost in total, an outrage. They will now face the Slovak Rebecca Sramkova (169th). The one who failed to pass was Lara Arruabarrena, who fell to the Italian Elisabetta Cocciaretto (156th) 6-0, 7-5.
This Tuesday Irene Burillo will debut, around 4:30 against the Australian Fourlis, and Alinona Bolsava, against the Japanese Naito, around 8:00. Matches can be followed on the Eurosport website and apps by subscription.
Results of the Australian Open preview.