Michelsen Beats Tsitsipas in Australian Open First Round, 17 Americans Play Openers Tuesday; Exsted Advances to ITF Traralgon J300 Semifinals; US Juniors Flood ITF J300 Coffee Bowl Draws

The second of three days of first round action at the Australian Open ended with eight more Americans advancing to the second round, joining Reilly Opelka, who won on Sunday.  The only US man to lose so far is 19-year-old wild card Nishesh Basavareddy(Stanford), who impressed in his slam debut with a 4-6,  6-3, 6-4, 6-2 loss to 10-time Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic, the No. 7 seed this year. 

Alex Michelsen, who lost to Basavareddy last week in Auckland, took out No. 11 seed and 2023 Australian Open men's singles finalist Stefano Tsitsipas of Greece 7-5, 6-3, 2-6, 6-4, with the other American men, all seeded, getting through their opening matches. Eight more US men play Tuesday; nine American women play Tuesday, including 2024 USTA Girls 18s champion Iva Jovic.

First Round Australian Open results featuring Americans:

Monday (Sunday night in US)

Danielle Collins[10] d. Daria Snigur[Q](UKR) 7-6(4), 6-3

Caroline Dolehide d. Sara Bejlek[Q](CZE) 7-6(5), 6-2

Ajla Tomljanovic[WC](AUS) d. Ashlyn Krueger 6-4, 4-6, 6-4

Laura Siegemund(GER) d. Hailey Baptiste 4-6, 7-5, 6-4

Coco Gauff[3] d. Sofia Kenin 6-3, 6-3

Jessica Pegula[7] d. Maya Joint[WC](AUS) 6-3, 6-0

Rebecca Sramkova(SVK) d. Katie Volynets 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 

Alex Michelsen d. Stefanos Tsitsipas[11](GRE) 7-5, 6-3, 2-6, 6-4

Frances Tiafoe[17] d. Arthur Rinderknech(FRA) 7-6(2), 6-3, 4-6, 6-7(4), 6-3

Novak Djokovic[7](SRB)d. Nishesh Basavareddy[WC] 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2

Sebastian Korda[22] d. Lukas Klein[Q](SVK) 6-3, 0-6, 6-3, 7-6(6)

Tommy Paul[12] d. Christopher O'Connell(AUS) 6-2, 3-6, 6-1, 6-7(5), 7-5

Tuesday first round matches featuring Americans(Monday night in US):

Marcos Giron v Yannick Hanfmann(GER)

Tristan Boyer[Q] v Federico Coria(ARG)

Taylor Fritz[4] v Jenson Brooksby

Ben Shelton[21] v Brandon Nakashima

Mitchell Krueger[Q] v Rinky Hijikata (AUS)

Learner Tien[Q] v Camilo Ugo Carabelli(ARG)

Emma Navarro[8] v Peyton Stearns

Madison Keys[19] v Ann Li

McCartney Kessler v Shuai Zhang[WC] (CHN)

Caty McNally v Varvara Gracheva(FRA)

Amanda Anisimova v Maria Lourdes Carle (ARG)

Taylor Townsend v Renata Zarazua (MEX)

Iva Jovic[WC] v Nuria Parrizas-Diaz(ESP)

Tristan Boyer(Stanford) is playing his first main draw match at a slam, but it's not under the best of circumstances, as the Los Angeles area city where he grew up, Altadena, was one of the areas hardest hit by the devastating wildfires. Boyer spoke to KCBS-TV in Los Angeles, with Randy Walker at World Tennis Magazine putting together this article about the Boyers, a prominent tennis family in the Southern Californian section.

The semifinals are set at the ITF J300 in Traralgon, with No. 10 seed Maxwell Exsted the sole American to advance out of the quarterfinals. Exsted, the No. 10 seed, defeated No. 16 seed Ognjen Milic of Serbia 6-3, 6-2 to reach a semifinal against unseeded Egor Pleshivtsev of Russia, who is having a breakout tournament this week. He prevented an all-US semifinal with a 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(3) win over No. 5 seed Jagger Leach. Henry Bernet of Switzerland will face No. 7 seed Oskari Paldanius of Finland in the other boys semifinal.

Top seed Jeline Vandromme of Belgium will play qualifier Yihan Qu of China in the girls top half semifinal. No. 9 seed Hannah Klugman of Great Britain will play unseeded Ksenia Efremova of France, who beat Annika Penickova 6-4, 1-6, 6-4.

The Penickova twins and four US boys on three different teams are in the doubles quarterfinals, which are behind schedule due to rain earlier in the tournament.

The ITF J300 Coffee Bowl in Costa Rica is underway, and, as usual, the draws are full of Americans. Eighteen of the 32 boys in the main draw are from the United States, and 18 of the 32 girls in the main draw are Americans, meaning that two first round matches in each draw are all-US contests. New this year is the designation of the event as an indoor tournament, and perhaps because of that change, live streaming is available on five courts.

The American boys competing in the main draw are: Ryan Cozad(who won last week's J100 in Costa Rica), Andrew Johnson, Nischal Spurling, Calvin Baierl[5], Ronit Karki[4], Michael Antonius[Q], Gavin Goode, Mason Taube[Q], Jacob Olar, Lachlan Gaskell[6], Simon Caldwell, Zachary Cohen, Yubel Ubri, Jack Satterfield[8], Jordan Lee, Gray Kelley[Q], Keaton Hance[WC] and Jack Secord[2]. Dante Pagani of Argentina is the top seed.

The tournament website updates scores during the day, and the draw is showing that Ubri defeated No. 3 seed Fumin Jiang of China 6-3, 6-3 today.

The American girls are led by top seed Kaitlyn Rolls, with the other 17 girls in the draw Kori Montoya, Sabrina Lin, Ligaya Murray, Hannah Ayrault[WC], Leena Friedman[3], Lucy Oyego Atang[Q], Ava Rodriguez, Kayla Chung, Julieta Pareja[5], Ireland O'Brien[Q], Ishika Ashar, Kaya Moe, Nancy Lee[7], Carrie-Anne Hoo, Raya Kotseva[WC], Sara Shumate[Q] and Capucine Jauffret[2].

Chung defeated No. 8 seed Pietra Rivoli of Brazil 6-3, 6-2 in the first round today.