Montreal’s Felix Auger-Aliassime outlasted Austria’s Dominic Thiem 6-3, 7-5, 6-7 (5), 5-7, 6-3 on a mixed day for Canadians on Monday at the Australian Open.
Auger-Aliassime, the No. 27 seed, needed four hours 59 minutes to complete the first-round victory, which ended just before 2 a.m. local time at Melbourne Park.
He said he was proud of how he regrouped after missing a chance to close out the win in straight sets.
“It was a struggle for me but at the end, I didn’t want to fail,” Auger-Aliassime said in an on-court interview. “I didn’t want to disappoint myself with my effort. I didn’t want to have any regrets about leaving this court today.”
Earlier, Denis Shapovalov of Richmond Hill, Ont., and Milos Raonic of Thornhill, Ont., lost their opening matches.
WATCH | Auger-Aliassime begins Australian Open with 4-hour 59-minute win:
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The Canadian fought off a Dominic Thiem comeback attempt after taking the first two sets but allowing the Austrian to even the match and force a deciding fifth set.
Shapovalov, who missed the second half of last season with a knee injury, dropped a 6-3, 7-5, 7-5 decision to 18-year-old Czech qualifier Jakub Mensik.
Mensik finished with 12 aces, including three in a row in the final game of the third set.
Raonic lost to 10th-seeded Australian Alex de Minaur when he was forced to retire early in the third set due to injury. De Minaur was leading 6-7 (6), 6-3, 2-0 at the time.
Raonic, a former world No. 3, was playing his 10th tour-level match since returning from a nearly two-year injury layoff.
“I hope Milos has a speedy recovery,” said de Minaur. “It’s not great to see him like this, and he deserves to be healthy and playing the incredible tennis that he has done for so many years. So hopefully he is back in no time.”
Shapovalov and Raonic used their protected ranking to enter the main draw of the first Grand Slam of the season.
Shapovalov had played only one match since July 9, but declared himself fit and ready to compete in Melbourne.
WATCH | Shapovalov upended by Czech teen qualifier:
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After making his return in the new year from a knee injury that kept him out since Wimbledon, Denis Shapovalov of Richmond Hill, Ont., suffers a 6-3, 7-5, 7-5 loss to 18-year-old qualifier Jakub Mensik of the Czech Republic in the opening round of the Australian Open.
Mensik had four double faults, 22 unforced errors, was good on 63 per cent of his first serves, and won three return games and 17 serve games.
He will next play the winner of the match between qualifier Omar Jasika of Australia and ninth-seeded Hubert Hurkacz of Poland.
Raonic, a former World No. 3, was playing his 10th tour-level match since returning from a nearly two-year injury layoff.
“I hope Milos has a speedy recovery,” said De Minaur. “It’s not great to see him like this, and he deserves to be healthy and playing the incredible tennis that he has done for so many years. So hopefully he is back in no time.
WATCH | Injury forces Raonic to exit 1st-round match in Australia:
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The Thornhill, Ont. native withdrew from his first-round match with Alex de Minaur early in the third set after being treated for an apparent hip issue.
More Canadians in action
In women’s singles, qualifier Rebecca Marino of Vancouver was scheduled to play fifth-seeded American Jessica Pegula in first-round play Tuesday.
Leylah Fernandez of Laval, Que., the No. 32 seed, won her opening match over the weekend and will next play American Alycia Parks.
WATCH l Fernandez advances to 2nd round in Melbourne:
Leylah Fernandez of Laval, Que., defeats qualifier Sara Bejlek of the Czech Republic 7-6 (5), 6-2 on the opening day of the 2024 Australian Open.
In women’s doubles, the fourth-seeded duo of Ottawa’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe have drawn Argentina’s Nadia Podoroska and Egypt’s Mayar Sherif for their opening match.
Dabrowski and Routliffe, a dual citizen who grew up near Toronto and lives in Montreal, won the U.S. Open last year.
Rob Shaw is the lone Canadian wheelchair tennis player in the field. The North Bay, Ont., native competes in the quad division for players with varying levels of upper and lower limb impairment.
Regina’s Keegan Rice is entered in the junior competition.
Osaka loses in return to tennis
Naomi Osaka returned to Grand Slam tennis after maternity leave in the same way she left it with a first-round loss after going down 6-4 7-6(2) to Caroline Garcia.
Taking on the experienced French 16th seed was always going to be a big challenge for the twice Australian Open champion, who returned to tournament tennis only two weeks ago after 15 months out.
The power that took Osaka to four Grand Slam titles before she took time off to have daughter Shai was still there but it was always going to take the 26-year-old time to rediscover her accuracy in clutch moments.
Garcia said she had a huge amount of respect for Osaka and was sure it would not be long before the Japanese former world number one was back at the top of the game.
“She has had an amazing career, she has been away for 15 months and been through a lot,” the 30-year-old said.
“I hope she can enjoy her tennis. She has done a lot for tennis in the past few years. Six months after giving birth and she’s playing amazing, so we have to watch out.”
A double fault gave Garcia, an aggressive baseliner like Osaka, the first break point of the match in the fifth game and the former world number four converted it to edge ahead.
Osaka had a sniff of a break back at deuce in the eighth game but dumped a routine backhand into the net and Garcia held with back-to-back aces before going on to take the set.
The twice U.S. Open champion won her first three service games of the second set to love, but Garcia was serving so well that Osaka was unable to build any pressure.
Osaka had beaten Garcia 6-2 6-3 on the way to her 2021 triumph at Melbourne Park but this was a much tighter contest with the second set decided in a tiebreak.
Still hitting the mark with her first serves, Garcia raced to a big lead and clinched the win on her first match point when Osaka found the net with another backhand.
It was Osaka’s earliest exit in eight visits to the Australian Open and her third successive loss in the opening round of a Grand Slam after she fell at the first hurdle at the French and U.S. Opens in 2022.
Medvedev moves on
Third-seeded Daniil Medvedev, the 2021 and 2022 finalist at Melbourne Park and at last year’s U.S. Open, also advanced when his opponent retired from their match.
Medvedev had dropped the first set but was leading 5-7, 6-2, 6-4, 1-0 when the 22-year-old Terence Atmane quit because of cramps.
Stefanos Tsitsipas, who lost last year’s Australian final to Novak Djokovic, advanced with a 5-7, 6-1, 6-1, 6-3 win over Zizou Bergs. Five-time Australian Open finalist Andy Murray lost to Tomas Martin Etcheverry 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 and said it might be the last time he contests the season’s first major.
Gauff starts strong
Coco Gauff began her quest for back-to-back Grand Slam singles titles with a 6-3, 6-0 victory over Anna Karolina Schmiedlova.
The 19-year-old American, who won her first major at the U.S. Open in September, wrapped up victory in exactly one hour.
“I was a little nervous the first set,” fourth-seeded Gauff said. “I think I did well returning, then I found my serve toward the end [of the set]. When I was nervous at 3-3, I told myself: `I feel good, I look good, so just have fun’. That was able to relax me a little bit’.”
Earlier, there was a surprising defeat for Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova as she was beaten 6-1, 6-2 by Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine.
Seventh-seeded Vondrousova missed the Adelaide tune-up event with a hip injury and struggled on serve throughout, hitting seven double faults as she was well-beaten by the world No. 93-ranked player.
In other early play, 19th-seeded Elina Svitolina, advanced to the second round, beating Taylah Preston, a wild-card entry from Australia, 6-2, 6-2.