MELBOURNE, Australia: The Latest from the Australian Open on Tuesday (all times local):
12:45 p.m.
Sofia Kenins Australian Open title defense got off to a bit of a rocky start before she righted herself and pulled out a two-set win.
The 22-year-old American trailed by an early break and took about 45 minutes to actually wrest some semblance of control before eventually beating 133rd-ranked Australian wild-card entry Maddison Inglis 7-5, 6-4.
Inglis never has won a tour-level match, falling to 0-6.
But she did not make things easy on Kenin, who nevertheless managed to avoid becoming the first woman since Jennifer Capriati in 2003 to lose in the first round at the Australian Open a year after winning the championship.
First round, its obviously nerves for me, said Kenin, who followed up her first major title last year by reaching the final at the French Open.
Kenin acknowledged with a chuckle that she was not too happy with the way I played but added: A win is a win.
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12:30 p.m.
Garbie Muguruza has won her opening match at the Australian Open, where she reached the final last year before losing to American Sofia Kenin.
Muguruza, a Spaniard seeded 14th, beat Margarita Gasparyan of Russia, 6-4, 6-0.
Muguruza improved to 9-0 in first-round matches at Melbourne Park. The two-time Grand Slam champion lost only 11 points in the second set.
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12:20 p.m.
Ann Lis off to quite a start to 2021, moving into the second round of the Australian Open with a 6-2, 6-0 victory over No. 31 seed Zhang Shuai.
Li is a 20-year-old American who is ranked 69th and competing in only her third career Grand Slam tournament.
She needed just 47 minutes to win and improve to 5-0 this season.
Li is coming off an unusual accomplishment at a tuneup tournament at Melbourne Park last week: She shared the title of the Grampians Trophy with Anett Kontaveit because organizers decided not to hold a final so as not to wear out the players right before the Australian Open.
That warmup event was created for players such as Li who had to go into a hard lockdown after potentially being exposed to COVID-19. They were not allowed out of their hotel rooms for practice or any other reason during a two-week quarantine upon arrival in Australia.
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11 a.m.
Sofia Kenin begins defense of her Australian Open title when she takes on Australian Maddison Inglis to begin play at Rod Laver Arena. Kenin beat Garbie Muguruza in the final last year in three sets for her first Grand Slam singles title. Muguruza will be in action at the same time, kicking things off at Margaret Court Arena in a match against Margarita Gasparyan.
Rafael Nadal plays the final day match at Rod Laver Arena against Laslo Djere. This is Nadals first chance to grab sole possession of the mens mark for most Grand Slam singles titles. He pulled even with Roger Federer at 20 by winning the French Open in October, beating Novak Djokovic in a lopsided final. Federer is still sidelined after two knee operations and is not playing here.
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