The Australian Open tennis tournament is underway and there have already been some major upsets with Venus Williams, Rafael Nadal and Simona Halep losing in the first round. The coverage for the event is on ESPN with TV and streaming and the schedule will continue with the openings rounds through the week.
The schedule for Wednesday picks up 11 am local time and players like Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova and Roger Federer will be in action for second round matches. All three players advanced out of the first round and after the spate of upsets, that group could have some of the favorites for this tournament moving forward.
The first round saw some major upsets, as Rafael Nadal lost to Fernando Verdasco in five sets, while Simona Halep lost to Zhang Shuai and Venus Williams lost to Johanna Konta in straight sets. Serena Williams advanced over Camila Giorgi in straight sets 6-4, 7-5 and she played tough in a match that lasted for nearly two hours in stifling heat. Williams has only lost once at a major dating back to 2014 and she looks determined to win this one.
Nadal suffered another tough loss with his defeat against Verdasco in five sets, falling 7-6 (8-6) 4-6 3-6 7-6 (4-7) 6-2. Nadal has struggled at the early major for the past few years and this was another chocking loss for the former number one player. Nadal had won 14 of the previous 16 meetings with Verdasco, but this time he could not overcome some mistakes and ended up losing in five sets.
The Wednesday schedule has Serena Williams playing in Round 2 and she will be up against Su-Wei Hsieh in the women's singles, while Agnieszka Radwanska will battle Eugenie Bouchard. Maria Sharapova will be in action along with Roger Federer, who will be taking on Alexandr Dolgopolov for his second round matchup. Novak Djokovic is matched up with Quentin Halys in Round 2, while Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Tomas Berdych and Marin Cilic are also in action on Wednesday.
The Tuesday schedule saw Williams go down along with Nadal, while Victoria Azarenka and Lleyton Hewitt both won their matches in singles play. Andy Murray, Madison Keys and Stan Wawrinka also won to advance, while Halep lost to Shuai Zhang in straight sets to get bounced. Milos Raonic and John Isner also advanced on Tuesday and they are into the second round.
Check here for the full schedule and results for the Australian Open.
Check here for the live coverage for the Australian Open on ESPN.
