After the drama of yesterday, day two proceedings played out a little more as you’d expect as the established contingent survived some severe tests and the home-grown players enjoyed another fine day’s play after.
Not that there wasn’t a shock or two – as the tournament bade farewell to established names Dolgopolov, Fognini, Petkovic, Pennetta and Jankovic, amongst others.
Amongst many first round contests to savour and with potential for further upsets, Victoria Azarenka was again victorious against Sloane Stephens, likewise Caroline Wozniacki overcame Taylor Townsend, Kei Nishikori survived against Nicolas Almagro and Sam Stosur defeated the tricky Monica Niculescu.
The 20th seeds success was complimented by a host of other victories for the local talent including wins for Casey Dellacqua and the irresistible Hewitt (customary ding dong victory in five) making this first round the most profitable Aussie haul in a decade.
Elsewhere, defending men’s champ Wawrinka remains in that sublime season-ending form of 2014 giving him as good a shout as any for the title once more, whilst Serena, Radwanska, Cibulkova, Kvitova and Venus all posted good wins and Gael Monfils, Vasek Popisil, Feliciano Lopez, Go Soeda and Sergei Stakhovsky all prevailed in five setter crowdpleasers.
Novak Djokovic looked ominously good in his win too and a shout out to two faves of mine from the last generation and Hantuchova and Zvonareva both posted wins – but I imagine their runs will end there against Murguruza and Serena respectively.
Day 2 Players of the Day
Lleyton Hewitt
Victoria Azarenka
Kei Nishikori
The Aussie contingent
The five setter participants
Day 3 Pick of the Day – Kohlschreiber vs Tomic
Sorry ladies, but such was the seed exodus on Monday that the third days best contests are reserved for the men – take your pick from Karlovic vs Kyrgios, Berdych vs Melzer or the all-Aussie affair Groth vs Kokkinakis.
Day 2 Seeds to fall
Fabio Fognini (lost to Gonzalez)
Alexandr Dolgopolov (lost to Lorenzi)
Julien Benneteau (lost to Becker)
Pablo Cuevas (lost to Bachinger)
Flavia Pennetta (lost to Giorgi)
Andrea Petkovic (lost to Brengle)
Jelena Jankovic (lost to Bacsinszky)
All Things Tennis 