Australian Open 2017: Top 5 upsets from Week-1
The 2017 Australian open is halfway done with the first week of the tournament coming to an end. So far, the tournament has witnessed many interesting matches and a number of upsets. Many of the top seeds have made their way to the fourth round; some even making the quarter-finals.
However, like every other tournament, a number of top players will be heading home earlier than expected. As of now, Marin Cilic, Agnieszka Radwanska, and Simona Halep are some of the players who were beaten by lower ranked opponents.
However, the biggest shock of the tournament has been the early exits of Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic and defending Women’s champion Angelique Kerber with Djokovic biting the dust in the second round by Denis Istomin and World No.1s Murray and Kerber both bowing out in the fourth round today to Mischa Zverev and Coco Vandeweghe respectively. For the first time since 2015, the Australian Open final will not involve either of Murray or Djokovic. Murray’s and Djokovic’s exits have boosted the chances of a Federer-Nadal final at a Grand Slam after nearly six years.
With Day-8 of the tournament only hours away, let’s take a look at the Top five upsets of this Australian Open till the first week of the competition.
#5. Agnieszka Radwanska’s shock defeat to Mirjana Lucic-Baroni
Aga Radwanska did not have the best of starts to 2017 as she was unable to defend her title at the Shenzhen Open after being beaten by eventual runner-up Alison Riske in the quarter-finals. However, she rebounded well by reaching the final of the Sydney International which she went on to lose against Johanna Konta.
Seeded third, Radwanska was one of the title contenders at the Australian Open but began her tournament by barely scraping past former Wimbledon semi-finalist Tsvetana Pironkova in three sets. In the second round, Radwanska was up against 1999 Wimbledon semi-finalist, and current World No.79 Mirjana Lucic-Baroni who had just won her first Australian Open match since 1998 after defeating Chinese Wang Qiang in three sets.
The 34-year old Croat was too good for the Pole as she went on to stun last year’s semi-finalist 6-3, 6-2 which will see Radwanska’s ranking fall down from 3rd to 6th at the end of the tournament. Lucic-Baroni went on to defeat Greece’s Maria Sakkari in the third round and will now take on qualifier Jennifer Brady in the fourth round in an attempt to reach her first Grand Slam quarter-final since the 1999 Wimbledon Championships.