Milos and Vasek victorious down under
Day 1 of the Australian Open saw Genie Bouchard set the pace for the Canadians, winning her opening match in straight sets.
On Day 2, Milos Raonic and Vasek Pospsisil each followed her lead by booking their spots in the second round as well.
Milos brought his usual dominating serve with him down under, and it was a big part of his 7-6(3), 7-6(3), 6-3 first round victory over Ukrainian qualifier Illya Marchenko. Raonic fired 28 of his patented aces, with the final one coming as the nail-in-the-coffin on match point. His fastest serve of the day was 228 km/h, which is insanely fast, but nothing special by Milos’ terms as he has reached as fast as 250 km/h in the past.
Raonic’s next opponent will be American Donald Young, who lost to Milos twice last season. While he doesn’t have an army like Genie does, Raonic is still receiving an overwhelming amount of support from the fans down under.
Vasek Pospisil’s first-round match wasn’t as one-sided as Milos’ or Genie’s but he still found a way to persevere. Pospisil took the first set, but then dropped the next two. With the match on the line, he found his game again and took the 4th and 5th sets for the 6-3, 6-7 (5), 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 win.
The win is Pospisil’s first five-set victory at a Grand Slam. He fired a total of 20 aces in the match and capitalized on four of his five break point opportunities. Pospisil will face Italian Paolo Lorenzi in the second round.
Day 3 Preview
There will be three Canadians in action on the third day of the Australian Open.
Genie Bouchard will be looking to reach the third-round when she faces Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands. Bouchard can expect another great show of support from her “Genie Army”, who were out in full force during her first match.
Vasek Pospisil will be back on the court, but this time for his first-round doubles match with partner Julian Knowle of Austria. Pospisil’s usual doubles partner, American Jack Sock, is still recovering from hip surgery. The duo of PospiSock (as they are known to the tennis world) are an up-and-coming doubles favourite, as the pair took home the doubles title from Wimbledon last season.
The final Canadian playing on Day 3 is 22 year-old Gabriela Dabrowski, who will be looking to advance to the second-round of the doubles draw with partner Alicja Rosolska of Poland.
