Daria Kasatkina Overcomes Nerves to Progress at Wimbledon; Alex de Minaur Leads Australian Comeback

Australia's Wimbledon challenge has been reinvigorated after a disastrous opening day as Alex de Minaur and Daria Kasatkina led a four-win revival. On another sweltering day in London, the pair raced into the second round by early afternoon and were joined by Aleksandar Vukic and Rinky Hijikata. Seven Australians lost in Monday's calamitous start, with only an injured Jordan Thompson battling through. But there will now be five in the last-64 draw.

Sixteenth seed Kasatkina became the first and only one of the seven Aussie women to progress with her 7-5, 6-3 victory over Colombian Emiliana Arango. Beaten in three matches on grass this season, she laboured against the world number 76, revealing she was so nervous in her first Wimbledon appearance since switching allegiance to Australia that she vomited outside just before entering court 14. She dished up 11 double faults and 38 unforced errors against Arango, but the South American contributed to her own defeat, making 39 errors of her own.

De Minaur was far more authoritative in his first grand slam outing since taking a break after his shock second-round exit at the French Open, beating Spain's Roberto Carballes Baena 6-2, 6-2, 7-6 (7-2) in 2 hours and 25 minutes. Even a delay while an unwell ball boy was replaced, just before De Minaur was to serve to stay in the third set at 5-6, did not faze the 11th seed. His form was sharp enough, given his lack of match practice on grass.

The chances of an all-Sydney second-round meeting were extinguished, though, after Adam Walton, having battled back from two sets down, lost 6-3, 7-6 (8-6), 4-6, 6-7 (5-7), 6-1 to Frenchman Arthur Cazaux, who will face de Minaur for the first time. Vukic beat Chinese Taipei's Chun-Hsin Tseng 6-3, 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (7-5) in just over 3 hours, setting up a daunting meeting with world number one Jannik Sinner, who defeated compatriot Luca Nardi 6-4, 6-3, 6-0.

Hijikata made surprisingly easy progress against veteran David Goffin, brushing aside the 34-year-old Belgian 6-3, 6-1, 6-1 after temperatures dropped in the evening. Next he will face Ben Shelton, the American 10th seed who proved a younger, superior mirror image of Alex Bolt, defeating the Murray Bridge qualifier 6-4, 7-6 (7-1), 7-6 (7-4).

Beyond Kasatkina's win, it was a chastening day for the Australian women's challenge, with the biggest disappointment being 19-year-old new Eastbourne champion Maya Joint's fairly routine 6-3, 6-2 defeat to a teak tough first-round opponent, Russian 19th seed Liudmila Samsonova. Priscilla Hon went down 6-2, 7-5 to Russian 18th seed Ekaterina Alexandrova while fellow debutant, Sydney's James McCabe, was well beaten 6-1, 6-4, 6-3 by Hungary's world number 58, Fabian Marozsan, after he arrived for his match later than he hoped for due to his car getting stuck in a traffic jam.

According to the source: Australian Broadcasting Corporation.