MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) – Shelby Rogers thoroughly dominated the No. 4 player in the world, Simona Halep. A teary-eyed CoCo Vandeweghe battled nausea to outlast another top-20 veteran, Roberta Vinci.
And the grande dame of the women’s tour, 36-year-old Venus Williams, refused to cede the spotlight for at least another match at the Australian Open, beating Kateryna Kozlova in the first round of her 73rd career Grand Slam tournament, an Open-era record.
It’s been a fast start for many of the 32 Americans in the men’s and women’s singles draw in Melbourne – both the old guard and the unproven youngsters of the next generation. Thirteen won their first-round matches on Monday, compared to six losses – two of which were to American opponents.
The power-hitting Rogers scored the biggest upset of the day. Newly confident after her surprising run to the French Open quarterfinals last year, the 24-year-old South Carolina native outplayed Halep with an aggressive, all-court game, winning 6-3, 6-1.
“The biggest thing I took away from (the French Open) was just that I can compete with the top players in the world,” she said. “(There are) little things here and there I need to work on, but I’m here. I need to believe in myself.”