Six of the twelve American men who made the main draw of the Australian Open were able to advance to the second round after the first two days of play at Melbourne Park. Four of those players were in action on Wednesday, with three of them taking to the court as underdogs against players ranked inside the world’s top 20. But despite that, only one was defeated, with Michael Mmoh losing to ninth seed and dark-horse contender Roberto Bautista Agut.
And Mmoh still deserves credit for his performance, taking the first set off the Spaniard, who established himself as one of the best players in the world last season, reaching the quarterfinals in Melbourne and the last four at Wimbledon. Tommy Paul and Tennys Sandgren, meanwhile, both came through five-set thrillers, whilst Sam Querrey enjoyed a more comfortable outing against Ricardas Berankis, although the Lithuanian tested him at times.
Paul overpowers Dimitrov
In what was surely the match of the day, and one of the most entertaining contests of the tournament so far, the 22-year-old Paul defeated 18th seed and US Open semifinalist Grigor Dimitrov after four hours and 19 minutes of thrilling tennis. The American stormed into a two-set lead, but proved unable to finish his opponent off. And after losing the fourth-set tiebreak, Paul had looked dead on his feet, with Dimitrov taking advantage to break, giving him the chance to serve for the match up 5-4.
But Paul rallied, hitting some huge forehands to break back, before forcing a deciding tiebreak. Dimitrov’s missed chances clearly frustrated the 18th seed, who faded badly in that tiebreak, with Paul winning it comfortably, ten points to three. Paul’s 6-4 7-6 3-6 6-7 7-6 win was made all the more impressive by the fact that he had played on consecutive days, after his first match was washed out on Monday after heavy rain fell on Melbourne.
That win sets up what could be a winnable clash with the also unseeded Marton Fucsovics. The Hungarian should not be underrated, he has already knocked out 13th seed Denis Shapovalov and he reached the second week in Melbourne in 2018. But when Paul plays on the front foot as he did against Dimitrov, he has the power to hit through almost anyone and he will surely be full of confidence having won his first matches at a Grand Slam.
Sandgren too strong for Berrettini
Sandgren is perhaps best known for reaching the Australian Open quarterfinals in 2018 and he clearly enjoys the conditions at Melbourne Park. Still, few would have bet on him to beat eighth seed Matteo Berrettini, particularly after the American had made a poor start to the season, winning just one of his first three matches. But it was Sandgren who made the early running against Berrettini, taking a deserved two-set lead.
Thereafter, however, Sandgren seemed to tire and Berrettini forced his way back into contention, levelling the match at two-sets apiece. From there, Berrettini looked to have taken control, but the match turned with Sandgren serving at 3-4 in the decider. A double fault and an unforced error followed by a Berrettini winner, left Sandgren on the brink down 0-40. But he won five points in a row to stay alive, before breaking himself at 5-5 and serving out the match to seal a famous win.
Querrey betters Berankis
On paper, Querrey had by far the easiest second-round match, a reward for his dominant straight-sets win over 25th seed Borna Coric in the first round. But Berankis, a former-junior world #1, gave the big-serving American a stern test. His best shot is his return and at times he was able to put Querrey under pressure and he converted on three of the six break points he created. Unfortunately for Berankis, that was not enough to take him to victory.
Crucially, Querrey was able to hit his spots with his first serve, which allowed him to take the racquet out of Berankis’ hands. The Californian fired down 26 aces, against just four double faults, and won 87% of the points behind his first delivery. He also impressed from the back of the court, hitting 59 winners to 34 unforced errors, and he should have relatively fresh legs moving forward. Indeed, Querrey, a former-semifinalist at Wimbledon, could well be gearing up for another deep run at a Major.
Third Round Preview: Querrey vs Sandgren
The United States’ will have at least one male representative in the second week, with Querrey and Sandgren set to meet in the third round. Perhaps surprisingly, it will only be their second meeting, with their first coming last year at Wimbledon, where Querrey won in four. But it would be a mistake to read too much into that result: grass is Querrey’s best surface and three of the four sets went to a tiebreak, illustrating just how close the match was.
Querrey is, of course, the more experienced player and he is ranked 55 places above world #100 Sandgren. But Querrey has never been beyond the third round in Melbourne, whilst Sandgren, as mentioned above, is a former-Australian Open quarterfinalist. He also won the only title of his career so far in similar conditions in Auckland last season. Both men will surely be desperate to win, however, with the victor set to take on either Fabio Fognini or Guido Pella, both more comfortable on the clay and thus potentially vulnerable to the big-serving Americans.
It also has all the makings of a close contest, although Querrey has the slight edge. His overall game is that much more polished than Sandgren’s. The Tennessee-native is also not one of the fitter players on the ATP Tour, which could see him struggle to recover after his lengthy clash with Berrettini in the round of 64. But whoever wins, it is surely a great sign for American men’s tennis to have several players threatening a deep run at the Australian Open.
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