It has not taken long for this year’s Australian Open to serve up a few surprises, even before the first round has wrapped up.
One of the early upsets came from Arthur Fery, with the British qualifier pulling off a surprise win over 20th seed Flavio Cobolli.
There was also an unexpected result in the women’s draw, with qualifier Zeynep Sonmez getting past 11th seed Ekaterina Alexandrova.
Beyond that, there has already been a notable withdrawal as well, with former Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova pulling out due to injury.
Australian Open exit for Taylor Townsend
With Vondrousova pulling out, Taylor Townsend was given a spot in the main draw as a lucky loser. The American had lost her qualifying match to Storm Hunter but got another chance when the spot opened up.
Townsend, though, was not able to make the most of it, falling in the first round to Hailey Baptiste.
The match-up between two Americans saw Baptiste come out on top with a 6-3, 6-7(3-7), 6-3 victory.
Baptiste, who is also competing in doubles at Melbourne Park, will now face either Storm Hunter or Jessica Bouzas Maneiro in the next round.
Taylor Townsend looks to doubles for Melbourne momentum
But there is still another opportunity for Townsend to make an impact in Melbourne, this time in her preferred format.
The American has teamed up again with Katerina Siniakova for the doubles, and they begin their title defence against Anna Siskova and Magali Kempen.
This pairing has serious pedigree. Townsend and Siniakova have already won two Grand Slams together, including Wimbledon last summer and the Australian Open a year ago.
They also reached the 2025 US Open final, adding to Townsend’s record of four Grand Slam doubles final appearances and two in mixed doubles.
Despite being best known for her doubles play, Townsend had a strong singles showing at last year’s US Open as well.
She picked up wins over Jelena Ostapenko and Mirra Andreeva before losing in the fourth round to fellow doubles specialist Barbora Krejcikova.
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