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1/20/09 11:03 PM | Cheryl Murray
Last year’s Australian Open finalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga navigated Argentina’s Juan Monaco and joins Jurgen Melzer and James Blake into the second round.
Jo Wilfried Tsonga def. Juan Monaco
France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga came into Melbourne with questions over his health hovering. The Frenchman was forced to withdraw from last week’s Sydney tournament with an ailing back. There was no evidence of a back issue in his first round match against Juan Monaco of Argentina, however. Monaco was able to somewhat keep up with Tsonga through the first two sets, where he lost each down a single break of serve, but Tsonga ran away with the third set. Monaco failed to win a single game and Tsonga closed up the match with authority. The Frenchman will take on the hard-hitting Croat Ivan Ljubicic in the second round.
Jurgen Melzer def. Kei Nishikori
Kei Nishikori is a promising young player from Japan, but he simply did not deliver the goods in his first round match against Jurgen Melzer. Nishikori had 5-3 in the first set, but permitted the lead to get away from him. After the match, Nishikori admitted, “Yeah, I went a little down mentally, I think. Couldn’t make any balls. No first serves.” After the meltdown in the first set, Nishikori quite simply fell apart. He had a hard time keeping the ball in play and Melzer ran away with the match. Melzer will run into Andreas Beck in the next round.
James Blake def. Frank Dancevic
American James Blake kicked off his Australian Open bid in fine form against Canada’s Frank Dancevic. Dancevic led off the match on serve. He smacked four aces in that opening game, but still struggled to hold as Blake pressured Dancevic anytime he saw a second serve. Blake pushed the Canadian to deuce, though Dancevic eventually held. Blake continued to pressure Dancevic’s serve through the first and second set, and won each with a comfortable break advantage. Dancevic showed more fight in the third set, going toe to toe with Blake until the American managed to break at 5-5 on Dancevic’s serve. Blake will play little-known Frenchman Sebastien De Chaunac in the second round.
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