AO2018: Quick hits day 1

“Have they chartered a private plane together” one observer was heard wondering of American players on Day One of AO2018 – and you’d be excused for thinking it wasn’t a joke.

The top three American women – world No.5 Venus Williams, No.9 CoCo Vandeweghe and No. 13 Sloane Stephens – were stunned before the first session was complete at Melbourne Park; No.16 seed John Isner joined them on the men’s side.

The biggest shock was arguably Venus, given her sensational finals run at AO2017. But world No.77 Belinda Bencic claimed three lower-level titles in her comeback from wrist surgery late last year and after winning the Hopman Cup for Switzerland alongside Roger Federer, confidence was understandably high.

Elsewhere, there were welcome wins for most seeds, including Grigor Dimitrov, Andrey Rublev in the men’s draw, plus Julia Georges and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova on the women’s side.

Win of the day: Kaia Kanepi

A win over a former Australian Open finalist is impressive enough. But Kaia Kanepi has additional reason to celebrate her 6-2 6-2 win over 2014 runner-up and No. seed Dominika Cibulkova considering everything the Estonian has navigated in recent years. Struggling with an Achilles injury and other ailments, the 32-year-old was close to retirement before she gave qualifying at the US Open 2017 a try. She went on to achieve a sixth Grand Slam quarterfinal and after her solid win in her first AO match in three years – Kanepi hit 15 winners to four from Cibulkova in their 91-minute encounter – a similar run in Melbourne could unfold.

It will be a long way home for…

Sloane Stephens. After winning the 2017 US Open, the American is now starting to seem like a big lottery winner who is broke just a year or two on. Stephens has lost eight straight matches since her win over Madison Keys in the final of her home Grand Slam – her latest loss, to Zhang Shuai in three sets, made world No.13 Stephens the first seed to stumble at Melbourne Park.

What we’ve learned:

American tennis isn’t as rosy as we recently thought. Four American contested the semifinals of their recent home Grand Slam; three of them crashed in the AO’s first round today. And that’s before we even start talking Isner and Sock.

Stat of the day:

15: The number of straight match wins for Julia Goerges. It takes in late 2017 titles in Moscow and Zhuhai and another to start the year in Auckland, and now a 6-4 6-4 dismantling of Sofia Kenin to begin the Australian Open. The German faces Alize Cornet next.

Quote of the day:

“I’m going to beat someone eventually. I will have the best Instagram picture when I finally snap this losing streak.” – Sloane Stephens

We’re looking forward to:

Day Two could be “returning champs” day at Melbourne Park, as Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Stan Wawrinka, Angelique Kerber and Maria Sharapova each take to the court. There’s endless fascination for each of those players but Juan Martin del Potro and Frances Tiafoe will create the popcorn match. Delpo returns to his first AO in four years after winning Auckland and fast-rising Tiafoe loves a big occasion as he showed when he pushed Roger Federer to five sets at last year’s US Open.