On the second day of juniors action at Australian Open 2018, it was the top seeds who took centre stage in both the boys’ and girls’ draws.
On the boys’ side, it was Russian Timofey Skatov who opened his Melbourne campaign in style with a 6-2 6-3 win over China’s Ye Cong Mo.
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Chinese 16-year-old Xinyu Wang was just as clinical in the girls’ draw, with the top seed disposing of Japan’s Sakura Hosogi 6-1 6-4.
The upset of the day came on the girls’ side, with unseeded American Dalayna Hewitt defeating Argentinean fourth seed Maria Carle 7-6(5) 6-4.
The 17-year-old is carrying form into the tournament after reaching a semifinal in Traralgon last week, before pulling out of her match before a ball was hit with a leg injury.
Hewitt says she is elated to have progressed through to the second round as she knew that her opponent would make for a tough match, but she is loving her time in Melbourne.
“It means so much, it’s my first time here. I really love it, all of the people are amazing and this is my dream tournament,” she said.
“I’ve seen her play in previous matches against other people, I know that she’s a fighter and it was going to be a tough one going in there.
“She runs down every ball and hits a solid serve, so I knew I had to play my game.”
Despite concerns about her leg heading into the tournament, Hewitt says her physio team has worked tirelessly to bring her back to full fitness.
“The leg is good, I’ve been getting so much work done on it by at least four physios,” she said.
“They’ve all been helping me and I’m doing all that I can to make it better.”
Elsewhere in the girls’ draw, second seed En Liang was made to work extremely hard for her opening win against Australian Olivia Gadecki, claiming a 3-6 6-3 7-6(3) victory.
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The other seeds to progress in the opening round were No.6 Joanna Garland, 12th seed Elysia Bolton and 16th seed Kamilla Rakhimova, who defeated Akanksha A Bhan, Australian Ivana Popovic and Ali Collins respectively.
Qinwen Zheng, the 14th seed, was not so lucky, falling to in straight sets to Australian Amber Marshall 6-1 7-6(6), while 15th seed Yasmine Mansouri was defeated by Thailand’s Mananchaya Sawangkaew 6-2 6-1.
In the boys’ draw, most of the top seeds enjoyed a regulation day, with No.5 Hugo Gaston, No.7 Sebastian Korda, ninth-seeded Thiago Seyboth Wild, 12th seed Alexey Zakharov and No.14 Ondrej Styler all progressing through to the second round.
The biggest casualty was South Korean fourth seed Uisung Park, who was defeated by Frenchman Jaime Floyd Angele 7-6(4) 6-4, while 13th seed Andrew Fenty was also eliminated by Turkey’s Yanki Erel in three sets.
On the Australian front, under 18’s champion Alexander Crnokrak headlined the day for the home contingent, with a 6-3 6-1 win over American Sangeet Sridhar.
The Queenslander said despite having little knowledge of his opponent leading into the match, his focus and belief in his own game led him to victory.
“I actually didn’t know anything about him, but that just means I had to focus on my game and the things that I do really well,” he said.
“After I won the first set I felt more relaxed in the second, and I think I played a lot better.”
In other Australian results, Ken Kavrak, Dane Sweeny and Chen Dong were all eliminated.