Australia Open: Nadal’s struggling victory in the first round, Pegula and Gauff also won

Twenty-two-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal had to sweat it out to win against Jack Draper in the first round of the Australian Open, while Jessica Pegula, Coco Gauff and Danielle Collins of America also won their matches to reach the second round. Nadal defeated Draper 7-5, 2-6, 6-4, 6-1 in a match that lasted nearly three and a half hours. It was Nadal’s first win this year. Nadal will next face Macky MacDonald, who beat Brendan Nakashima 7-6, 7-6, 1-6, 6-7, 6-4 in four hours in an all-American encounter.

Third seed Pegula beat Romania’s Jacqueline Christian 6-0, 6-1, while seventh seed Gauff defeated Katerina Siniakova 6-1, 6-4. Last year’s runner-up, 13th seed Collins defeated Anna Kalinskaya 7-5, 5-7, 6-4. Pegula and Gauff could meet in the semi-finals, while Collins could play Iga Swiatek in the fourth round. In the women’s singles, top seed Swiatek opened with a 6-4, 7-5 win over No. 69 Jule Niemeyer.

Pegula, who had reached the quarterfinals here last two years, took just 59 minutes to win. And last year’s French Open finalist Gauff will now face former US Open champion Ema Radukanu. Britain’s Radukanu defeated Germany’s Tamara Korpach 6-3, 6-2. Former US Open champion Bianca Andreescu also advanced to the next round but 28th seed Amanda Anisimova was beaten 6-3, 6-4 by Marta Kosticu.

Two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka defeated 2020 winner Sofia Kenin 6-4, 7-6. Petra Kvitova, Elena Rybakina, Jelena Ostapenko and Barbara Kreiskova were successful in winning the women’s singles but three-time Grand Slam champion Stan Wawrinka was defeated by Alex Molkan 6-7, 6-3, 1-6, 7-6 in the men’s singles. Showed the way out by defeating 6-4.

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