MELBOURNE: Defending champion Rafa Nadal shrugged off a rocky build-up to reach the Australian Open second round with a four-set win over ailing Jack Draper on Monday after home favourite Nick Kyrgios dropped a Day One bombshell by pulling out injured.

In the women’s draw, top seed Iga Swiatek survived a tough examination before the Pole found her rhythm to beat German Jule Niemeier 6-4, 7-5 while Jessica Pegula and teenage prodigy Coco Gauff were both emphatic winners.

Spaniard Nadal came into Melbourne Park with only one victory since the US Open and was on the back foot against Draper on a warm and humid afternoon at Rod Laver Arena before cramping trouble struck the 21-year-old Briton.

With Draper reduced to a groaning wreck, Nadal finished strongly to close out the match 7-5, 2-6, 6-4, 6-1.

A year on from the “Miracle of Melbourne”, when Nadal came back from two sets down to topple Daniil Medvedev in a classic final, the Spaniard was happy to get through to his next match against American Mackenzie McDonald.

“If we put it in the perspective of what I’ve been through in the last six months, it was a positive start,” the 36-year-old said. “I played against one of the toughest opponents possible in the first round. He’s young, he has the power and I think he has a great future in front [of him].”

Nadal’s win will have been a relief for organisers, with one of the biggest draw cards in Kyrgios bowing out because of a knee problem on the eve of his opener.

Fears for Novak Djokovic amid reports he cancelled a second successive training session before his evening-session opener on a blazing hot Tuesday were eased after the nine-times champion stepped out for a late hit.

The Serb, who missed last year’s tournament after being deported from Australia over his lack of Covid-19 vaccination, has been nursing a hamstring strain.

Kyrgios, runner-up to Djokovic at Wimbledon, revealed he had a torn meniscus and withdrew after practice with doubles partner Thanisi Kokkinakis.

“I’m devastated,” said the Australian. “I’m just exhausted from everything, and obviously [it’s] pretty brutal.”

The withdrawal also ended Kyrgios and Kokkinakis’s defence of the men’s doubles title, a year after the “Special K’s” drew massive crowds through their unlikely championship run.

With Kyrgios gone and last year’s women’s champion Ash Barty retired, the chances of another home winner are greatly diminished.

Injured men’s world number one Carlos Alcaraz and two-time Melbourne champion Naomi Osaka — who is expecting her first child — are among the other players missing.

Other winners on Monday included Greek third seed Stefanos Tsitsipas and sixth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime, who saw off dogged Vasek Pospisil in an all-Canadian clash.

In the evening, Russian Medvedev swatted aside Marcos Giron 6-0, 6-1, 6-2 while China celebrated a small triumph for its men’s game when 17-year-old Shang Juncheng, the youngest player in the men’s draw, beat German Oscar Otte.

That made him the first man from his nation to win a main draw singles match at the tournament in the professional era.

“It’s huge for Chinese men’s tennis. We’ve had really good players from the women’s side, but not really big names in the men’s,” he said.

Italian 15th seed Jannik Sinner, the 2022 quarter-finalist, was the first man into the second round, rolling over Briton Kyle Edmund 6-4, 6-0, 6-2 on John Cain Arena.

In the women’s draw, hot favourite Swiatek was far from her fluent best against Niemeier but got the job done.

“Honestly, I wanted to be focused on myself because I know that Jule serves amazing and was really pushing, putting pressure on me,” said Swiatek, who landed only 49 percent of her first serves.

“So I’m pretty happy that I got through this match because the first round is always tricky and I guess an opponent like Jule makes it even more tricky.”

The Pole, who is chasing an Australian Open crown to go with major titles at the US Open and Roland Garros, plays Camila Osorio of Colombia next.

Pegula, seeded third behind Swiatek and Ons Jabeur, blitzed 161st-ranked Romanian Jaque­line Cristian 6-0, 6-1 in a 59-minute romp to signal her intent.

Fellow American Gauff raced into the second round with a 6-1, 6-4 thumping of Czech Katerina Siniakova.

The 18-year-old Gauff now faces a mouth-watering encounter against former US Open champion Emma Raducanu. Raducanu made light work of Tamara Korpatsch in a 6-3, 6-2 victory.

Also safely through was another American, Danielle Collins, last year’s beaten finalist in Melbourne.

Amanda Anisimova was unable to continue the good start for American women at the first Grand Slam since Serena Williams hung up her racket, the teary-eyed 28th seed tumbling out 6-3, 6-4 at the hands of Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk.

Greek sixth seed Maria Sakkari also won and Victoria Azarenka defeated Sofia Kenin 6-4, 7-6 (7-3) in a battle of two former Australian Open champions while Canadian Bianca Andreescu, the 2020 US Open champion, beat , 25th-seeded Czech Marie Bouzkova 6-2, 6-4.

Published in Dawn, January 17th, 2023