By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Sunday January 1, 2022

 

It was a big day for Alexei Popyrin and Yoshihito Nishioka in Australia.

Photo Source: Getty

You hear top players commonly refer to it in the early stages of their season: how difficult it is to get that first victory. Today in Adelaide, we saw first-hand how tough it can be, as sixth-ranked Felix Auger-Aliassime and 11th-ranked Holger Rune each fell at the first hurdle.



Auger-Aliassime, who is fresh off his best season as a pro, fell to Australia’s Alexei Popyrin 6-4, 7-6(5) in a tight tussle that really could have gone either way. But it was the 120th-ranked qualifier who showed his best tennis when it mattered most as he logged his third career Top-10 win.

“Obviously he’s one of the in-form players that we have on the tour right now, so yeah, if we go by ranking and by performance, then yeah, it’s probably one of the better wins of my career,” Popyrin said.

Popyrin struggled to find his form in 2022, going just 5-17, but he is still a believer in his talents.

“After the year I had last year, it’s a really, really great win for me, but…it’s something that I fully expect myself to do, to be able to beat these players, and it’s how I come out to play these matches against these guys,” the 23-year-old said.

Rune, like Auger-Aliassime, was a breakout player in 2022. He made his Top-10 debut and won three titles, but he met his match on Monday in Adelaide, falling to Yoshihito Nishioka, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4.

Rune hit 14 aces to zero for the Japanese, but only won 42 percent of his second-serve points as he surrendered four breaks of serve.

Nishioka moves on to face Mackenzie McDonald in the second round, while Popyrin will face American Marcos Giron.

Elsewhere in Adelaide, British talent Jack Draper pounded past Soonwoo Kwon, 6-2, 6-1, while Miomir Kecmanovic stopped Aussie Christopher O’Connell, 6-4, 6-4.

Novak Djokovic, the top seed in singles, was on the doubles court, where he and Vasek Pospisil were edged in a match tiebreak by Tomislav Brkic and Gonzalo Escobar 4-6, 6-3, 10-5. Djokovic will face Constant Lestienne of France in his first singles match.