John Peers was among the Aussie winners as the Australian Open 2023 men’s and women’s doubles competitions began at Melbourne Park today.
Melbourne, Australia, 19 January 2023 | Leigh Rogers
John Peers has maintained his perfect record in Australian Open first-round men’s doubles matches.
The 34-year-old Australian combined with German Andreas Mies to post a hard-fought 7-6(5) 6-7(4) 6-3 win against Indian wildcards Yuki Bhambri and Saketh Myneni at Melbourne Park today.
This is the 11th consecutive year that world No.38 Peers has recorded a first-round win at the tournament.
Yet the consistent Peers, a former world No.2 and the AO 2017 men’s doubles champion, was forced to dig deep to keep his unbeaten record intact.
After failing to convert two match points in the second set, Peers and world No.22 Mies looked in trouble when they fell behind 1-3 in the deciding set.
However, the No.14 seeds managed to regain the momentum and reeled off five consecutive games to secure their place in the second round.
In women’s doubles action, Aussie wildcards Olivia Gadecki and Priscilla Hon scored an impressive 6-4 6-2 first-round victory against Germany’s Tatjana Maria and Romanian Ana Bogdan.
This matches the career-best Australian Open result for both. The 20-year-old Gadecki made the second round at Melbourne Park in 2021, while 24-year-old Hon reached the second round last year as well.
World No.16 Desirae Krawczyk and world No.18 Demi Schuurs await in the second round. The sixth seeds scored a 6-1 6-4 first-round win today against Aussie duo Petra Hule and Arina Rodionova.
Sam Stosur and French partner Alize Cornet also bowed out to a seeded team, losing to world No.37 Chan Hao-Ching and world No.10 Yang Zhaoxuan.
Stosur, who is retiring after this tournament, received a standing ovation from an appreciative Kia Arena crowd following the 6-3 6-4 loss against the No.11 seeds.
What a champion 🙌
Sam Stosur’s remarkable women’s doubles career has come to a close 👏@bambamsam30 • #GoAussies • #AO2023 pic.twitter.com/cQwg1skwMd
— TennisAustralia (@TennisAustralia) January 19, 2023
“It was a fantastic match today. I thought Alize and I actually played pretty well together,” Stosur said, describing the moment as “bittersweet”.
“I love playing, I love competing … a crowd like this makes it kind of feel strange that you don’t want to do it anymore.”
Stosur now turns her attention to the Australian…
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