(Tennis news) The first day of Sydney Tennis Classic WTA 500 was like a transverse wave as the singles matches did not have a single sporting element missing. The tour in January is packed with events at Adelaide and Sydney as players get busy at the start of the season. The 2022 Australian Open will be starting in 6 days as players have already soaked in the heat at the ongoing events.

Sofia Kenin was the highest ranked player to make an exit on the first day of the Sydney Tennis Classic. The American was up against Daria Kasatkina who had reached the semifinals at Adelaide two days ago. The world number 12 looked a bit off in the middle of the first set as she could not convert two breakpoints at 3-2 and then lost three successive games to give the Russian the lead. 

After winning the first set, Kasatkina made a huge leap ahead by bageling Kenin as she knocked out the 8th seed in an hour. Kasatkina saved all the 7 breakpoints in the match and converted four out five to give herself a confidence boost ahead of the season opening Grand Slam. Kasatkina defeated Kenin 6-4, 6-0.

Anett Kontaveit made sure she reminded the Melbourne audience how she ended last season with a straight set win over Zhang Shuai. Kontaveit began her first match of the season with a full stretched backhand and forehand shot in the opening rally. The world number 7 had her first serves come out hot as Zhang only won 4 points out of 35 as Kontaveit kept her aggressiveness full on for the match.

Kontaveit was pouncing on Zhang’s second serve as a single breakpoint was enough for the Estonian to take the set. In the second set, things turned even worse for the 32 year old as she could only win one point out of 16 first serves and lost nine of her 12 second serves. Kontaveit took more risks and it gave her 4 breakpoints in which she lost two but was enough to progress to the next round. Kontaveit defeated Zhang 6-3, 6-3.

Petra Kvitova had a devastating start to the season when she was beaten in the opening round at Adelaide. Kvitova was on her way to another early exit against Arantxa Rus and saved two match points in a match that lasted for three hours. The two left handers hit a total of 16 double faults of which 8 came in the second and Kvitova accounted for 5 of them.

Rus was completely ahead of Kvitova in the first set as it looked like the Dutch player was in full control. In the second set, Kvitova was the one on top of the waves as she had a 4-2 lead until the storm shook her out of the game and it was 4 all. Kvitova who was 7 months older to her opponent used her forehand to unarm Rus and took the match to the decider. In the final set, Rus had two match points at 5-4 but could not get that one point as Kvitova got three consecutive games to end the ordeal. Kvitova defeated Rus 3-6, 7-6(7-4), 7-5.

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