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Barty roars back to make winning start in Melbourne

Melbourne - World No 1 and home hope Ashleigh Barty suffered a scare before she "tightened the screws" to power into the second round of the Australian Open on Monday.

The 23-year-old recovered from an error-strewn start to see off Ukraine's Lesia Tsurenko 5-7, 6-1, 6-1 under the roof at a partisan and wet Melbourne.

Barty, under huge pressure to deliver a home women's champion for the first time since Chris O'Neil in 1978, plays Polona Hercog of Slovenia or Sweden's Rebecca Peterson next.

Poster girl Barty, who joked on the eve of her opener that she was sick of seeing her picture everywhere, is the face of the first Grand Slam of the year.

A nation expects, and Barty said after dismissing the 120th-ranked Ukrainian that she had always felt in control, despite the indifferent start.

"Look, I think I was pressing a little bit early, made a few too many errors," said Barty, fresh from winning her first title on home soil, in Adelaide, on Saturday.

"Was able to tighten the screws in the second set and run away with it.

"Yes, it was disappointing to not start as well as I would have liked.

"Being able to kind of rectify that and fix that so quickly at the start of the second set was really important," the Australian added.

Collated results on day one of the Australian Open Grand Slam at Melbourne Park on Monday:

Men's singles

1st round

Matteo Berrettini (ITA x8) bt Andrew Harris (AUS) 6-3, 6-1, 6-3

Ricardas Berankis (LIT) bt Roberto Carballes (ESP) 6-4, 6-2, 6-2

Sam Querrey (USA) bt Borna Coric (CRO x25) 6-3, 6-4, 6-4

Guido Pella (ARG x22) bt John-Patrick Smith (AUS) 6-3, 7-5, 6-4

Gregoire Barrere (FRA) bt Mohamed Safwat (EGY) 6-7 (8/10), 7-6 (7/1), 6-4, 7-6 (7/5)

Marton Fucsovics (HUN) bt Denis Shapovalov (CAN x13) 6-3, 6-7 (7/9), 6-1, 7-6 (7/3)

Grigor Dimitrov (BUL x18) bt Juan Ignacio Londero (ARG) 4-6, 6-2, 6-0, 6-4

Daniel Evans (GBR x30) bt Mackenzie McDonald (USA) 3-6, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-3

Yoshihito Nishioka (JPN) bt Laslo Djere (SRB) 6-4, 3-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7/1)

Roger Federer (SUI x3) bt Steve Johnson (USA) 6-3, 6-2, 6-2

Stefanos Tsitsipas (GRE x6) bt Salvatore Caruso (ITA) 6-0, 6-2, 6-3

Philipp Kohlschreiber (GER) bt Marcos Giron (USA) 7-5, 6-1, 6-2

Novak Djokovic (SRB x2) bt Jan-Lennard Struff (GER) 7-6 (7/5), 6-2, 2-6, 6-1

Women's singles

1st round

Zhu Lin (CHN) bt Viktorija Golubic (SUI) 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (10/5)

Julia Georges (GER) bt Viktoria Kuzmova (SVK) 6-1, 6-2

Petra Martic (CRO x13) bt Christina McHale (USA) 6-3, 6-0

Ekaterina Alexandrova (RUS x25) bt Jil Teichmann (SUI) 6-4, 4-6, 6-2

Barbora Krejcikova (CZE) bt Kaia Kanepi (EST) 7-6 (7/3), 2-6, 6-3

Paula Badosa (ESP) bt Johanna Larsson (SWE) 6-1, 6-0

Petra Kvitova (CZE x7) bt Katerina Siniakova (CZE) 6-1, 6-0

Naomi Osaka (JPN x3) bt Marie Bouzkova (CZE) 6-2, 6-4

Zheng Saisai (CHN) bt Anna Kalinskaya (RUS) 6-3, 6-2

Sorana Cirstea (ROU) bt Barbora Strycova (CZE x32) 6-2, 7-6 (7/5)

Ann Li (USA) bt Lizette Cabrera (AUS) 7-6 (7/4), 7-6 (12/10)

Sofia Kenin (USA x14) bt Martina Trevisan (ITA) 6-2, 6-4

Caroline Wozniacki (DEN) bt Kristie Ahn (USA) 6-1, 6-3

Tamara Zidansek (SLO) bt Han Na-lae (KOR) 6-3, 6-3

Serena Williams (USA x8) bt Anastasia Potapova (RUS) 6-0, 6-3

Ashleigh Barty (AUS x1) bt Lesya Tsurenko (UKR) 5-7, 6-1, 6-1

Coco Gauff (USA) bt Venus Williams (USA) 7-6 (7/5), 6-3

Caty McNally (USA) bt Samantha Stosur (AUS) 6-1, 6-4

Zhang Shuai (CHN) bt Sloane Stephens (USA x24) 2-6, 7-5, 6-2


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