Qualifiers Maria Sakkari and Yafan Wang met each other for the first time to open up their Australian Open campaign. Maria Sakkari is a Greek tennis player. She made her debut for the Greece Fed Cup team in 2012, and achieved her career high singles ranking of 168 on November 30, 2015.

Sakkari won the first set against Wang 1-0 while her opponent prevailed during the second round, taking the score to 1-1. The Greek nervy straight-setter however, managed to pin Wang down again in the third set 2-1. Maria Sakkari made it to the second round with a 6-4 ,1-6, 6-3 score.

Both players had to come through qualifying to reach the main draw. Sakkari was a set down and two games from defeat in her opening match against Turkey’s Cagla Buyukakcay before rallying for a 4-6, 6-4, 7-5 win. In her next match, Sakkari again lost the first set and was once again two games from losing, this time to Belgian Elise Mertens before rallying again for a more comfortable 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 win. In her final qualifying round, the Greek had her easiest match so far, routing Lin Zhu of China 6-3 6-2. This is Sakkari’s first main draw at the Australian Open and 2nd straight main draw appearance at a Slam following up on her qualification at last year’s U.S. Open.

Full list of results- Women Rd 1:

Kurumi Nara (JPN) bt WC-Oceane Dodin (FRA) 7-6(2) 6-2.
Lauren Davis (USA) bt 26-Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS) 1-6 6-3 6-4.
Darya Kasatkina (RUS) bt 27-Anna Karolina Schmiedlova (SVK) 6-3 6-3.
Hsieh Su-Wei (TPE) bt Jelena Ostapenko (LAT) 3-6 7-5 6-1.
28-Kristina Mladenovic (FRA) bt Dominika Cibulkova (SVK) 6-3 6-4
Q-Maria Sakkari (GRE) bt Q-Wang Yafan (CHN) 6-4 1-6 6-3.
Magdalena Rybarikova (SVK) bt Yanina Wickmayer (BEL) 3-6 6-3 7-5.
Anna-Lena Friedsam (GER) bt Lourdes Dominguez (ESP) 7-6(3) 2-6 6-1.
Margarita Gasparyan (RUS) bt 17-Sara Errani (ITA) 1-6 7-5 6-1.
Daria Gavrilova (AUS) bt Lucie Hradecka (CZE) 7-6(3) 6-4.
Q-Nicole Gibbs (USA) bt Klara Koukalova (CZE) 6-2 2-6 6-1.1
0-Carla Suarez (ESP) bt Q-Viktorija Golubic (SUI) 7-5 6-4.
6-Petra Kvitova (CZE) bt Q-Luksika Kumkhum (THA) 6-3 6-1.
Wang Qiang (CHN) bt 24-Sloane Stephens (U.S.) 6-3 6-3
1-Serena Williams (U.S.) bt Camila Giorgi (ITA) 6-4 7-5

Men’s 1st Rd:
(6) Tomas Berdych (Cze) bt Yuki Bhambri (Ind) 7-5 6-1 6-2
Daniel Brands (Ger) bt Victor Estrella Burgos (Dom) 6-4 7-6 (7-1) 4-6 6-1
(15) David Goffin (Bel) bt Sergiy Stakhovsky (Ukr) 3-6 6-3 6-4 6-4
(19) Dominic Thiem (Aut) bt Leonardo Mayer (Arg) 6-2 7-6 (8-6) 4-6 7-6 (7-0)
Damir Dzumhur (Bih) bt Kyle Edmund (Gbr) 1-6 7-6 (7-4) 4-6 6-3 6-1
Austin Krajicek (USA) bt Di Wu (Chn) 6-4 6-1 6-3
Federico Del Bonis (Arg) bt (22) Ivo Karlovic (Cro) 7-6 (7-4) 6-4 2-1 ret
(7) Kei Nishikori (Jpn) bt Philipp Kohlschreiber (Ger) 6-4 6-3 6-3
Mirza Basic (Bih) bt Robin Haase (Ned) 7-6 (7-4) 6-4 6-4

Source: AAP