Eight Australians reach second round of 2024 Australian Open

The first round of the 2024 Australian Open is now complete and eight Australians have reached the second round. There are six Aussies left in the men’s draw, and two Aussies left in the women’s draw.

The six Australian men who are left are the 10th seed Alex de Minaur, Jordan Thompson, Alexei Popyrin, Max Purcell, and Christopher O’Connell of Sydney, and Thanasi Kokkinakis of Adelaide. The two Australian women left are Ajla Tomljanovic of Brisbane, and Storm Hunter of Rockhampton.

In the first round, de Minaur beat a grand slam finalist, in Milos Raonic of Canada, the 2016 Wimbledon finalist. Raonic actually withdrew trailing 6-7, 6-3, 2-0 because of a hip injury. Popyrin beat fellow Australian wildcard Marc Polmans of Brighton East, 6-3, 7-6, 6-2. O’Connell beat Cristian Garin of Chile in five sets, 3-6, 7-5, 4-6, 6-1, 7-5. Thompson also needed five sets before beating fellow Australian Aleksandar Vukic of Sydney, 3-6, 7-6, 6-2, 3-6, 6-4. So did, Kokkinakis, who beat Sebastian Ofner of Austria, 7-6, 2-6, 6-7, 6-1, 7-6. Meanwhile, Purcell beat Mate Valkusz of Hungary in four sets, 3-6, 7-6, 6-4, 7-5.

Of the six Australian men left, five will face a seeded player in the second round. Popyrin faces 24-time grand slam champion and world number one Novak Djokovic of Serbia, O’Connell faces the 16th seed and 2023 United States Open semifinalist Ben Shelton of the United States. Thompson faces the seventh seed, and 2021 French Open finalist and 2023 Australian Open finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece. Kokinnakis faces three-time grand slam semifinalist (2014 Wimbledon, 2017 Australian Open and 2019 United States Open) and 13th seed Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria. Purcell faces three-time grand slam finalist (2022 United States Open, 2022 French Open and 2023 French Open) and number 11 seed Casper Ruud of Norway.

Among the five Australians playing a seeded opponent, Thompson has beaten Tsitsipas once and Purcell has beaten Ruud once. Thompson’s win came in the second round of Indian Wells in 2023, 7-6, 4-6, 7-6. Purcell’s win came in the second round of Cincinnati in 2023, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4. de Minaur meanwhile will face Brisbane International quarterfinalist Matteo Arnaldi of Italy in round two.

On the women’s side, Hunter beat 2012 French Open finalist Sara Errani of Italy, 6-4, 6-3 in round one. Hunter will now face Laura Siegemund of Germany in round two. Meanwhile, Tomljanovic beat Petra Martic of Croatia 7-6, 4-6, 6-4 in round one. Tomljanovic will now face the 2017 French Open champion and 11th seed Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia in round two. Ostapenko has won two of three prior meetings. Tomljanovic’s lone win came in the third round of Wimbledon in 2021, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2.

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