Twice quarter-finalist Petra Kvitova is among others in action right now. She’s the sixth seed and, at 4-2 up in the first set against her compatriot Denisa Allertova, is looking good.
Tsitsipas does seem to have got over that early knee problem and is showing signs of looking sharp around the net. He earns two break-back points … the first goes begging and then he totally miscues a massive swing at Rublev’s second serve to squander the next one. Rublev sails though deuce for 4-2.
Popyrin has taken the first set 6-1 against Delbonis. That was quick! Almost as rapid is Natalia Vikhlyantseva, who has stormed to a 6-1 opening set lead over Julia Gorges.
Rublev is all over the court at the moment, looking on very good form. He’s just held to love and leads 3-1.
Bencic has broken back against Minella, while Popyrin now leads Delbonis 4-1 in the first set.
Greg emails: “What price a Williams-Osaka rematch in the final? I’m torn. I really want Serena to reach 24 slams but also feel bad about how Osaka didn’t get to enjoy her victory last year. Thoughts?”
I’d quite like a rematch too – as long as everyone around the court behaves properly, which shouldn’t be too much to ask.
On Court Eight, Alexei Popyrin and Federico Delbonis have already swapped breaks.
An early break for Rublev! Sealed with a whipped double-handed backhand. Tsitsipas seems to be uncomfortable already, waggling his knee about and doing some stretches. Is he for real or just reacting to the loss of serve?
We’ll be most closely following Tsitsipas-Rublev for the next little while, by the way, while still casting eyes around the other courts. If you’re watching – or even at! – one of the other matches then do write in with your thoughts!
Fifteen matches are underway – including this one, as of a moment or two ago! Belinda Bencic, the women’s 15th seed, is a break down already to Mandy Minella.
First up on Louis Armstrong will be Stefanos Tsitsipas against Andrey Rublev – two richly talented 21-year-olds who should serve up a very close first-round tie here. They will be starting pretty soon.
Daniela Hantuchova has just compared Gauff’s on-court movement to that of Martina Hingis. That’s some accolade! Do we agree?
krish
(@vkmagus)@NickAmes82
How far do you reckon Coco Gauff will go in this tournament
We need a fresh talent a la Boom Boom Becker of 1985#USOpen
We could do with that, yes. I’m quietly optimistic for her but don’t want to make bold predictions. She’s certainly got a chance of making a big, big impact. Here’s a very relevant piece by Tumaini Carayol:
Kyle Edmund is speaking on the telly:
“I’m feeling excited, had a good week’s training, really enjoyed it and feel like I’ve been progressing nicely. What I’ve got right now is the best I’ve had in a while so it’s just about going and seeing what I’ve got out there on the match court. The conditions here suit me well, the balls fly off, I’ve always enjoyed it. I’m confident in terms of belief in myself in my game but I’m a realist, I haven’t won a huge amount of matches but feel I’ve also done a lot of good stuff.”
He’s not gone past the second round in any of his last four grand slams – let’s hope for a revival here.
Here’s a scene-setter for Osaka’s big return, courtesy of Bryan Armen Graham – who’ll be with you later too:
Dan Dracea
(@DDracea)@NickAmes82 I feel this is finally Serena’s 24th Slam after what I saw yesterday. We have quite a few interesting matches today. Tsitsipas v Rublev, Shapovalov v Auger-Aliassime, Pospisil v Khachanov, Potapova v Gauff to name a few young guns facing each other.
Yes, Serena was on sizzling form. Good shout on those other games. Coco Gauff will probably be on at around 9pm UK time.
Any thoughts ahead of today’s action? Or based on yesterday’s, for that matter? Send your emails and tweets in to the addresses above. Let’s interact!
Good day!
And what a day we have in store! Various big guns get underway in the next few hours and they’ll all do well to dish out the kind of hiding Serena Williams handed Maria Sharapova yesterday. Novak Djokovic had a straightforward time of things too, but what of today’s contenders?
At midday local time – 5pm UK time – we’ll see the women’s champion Naomi Osaka take on the Russian, Anna Blinkova. That’s in Arthur Ashe Stadium and the third match there will see Rafael Nadal, a semi-finalist last year, face the experienced Australian John Millman.
Those tussles should bookend the day nicely. We’ll also see Simona Halep against Nicole Gibbs, Sloane Stephens taking on Anna Kalinskaya, Nick Kyrgios playing Steve Johnson and Great Britain’s own Kyle Edmund facing Pablo Andujar. The latter will probably take place around teatime UK time.
That’s just some of it; we’ll dig into the rest very soon. Tuesday’s play starts at 4pm UK time