MELBOURNE, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Highlights of day one of the Australian Open tennis championships at Melbourne Park on Monday. Times local (GMT +11):
TUESDAY, 0048 SHAPOVALOV SEALS COMEBACK WIN OVER SINNER
Canadian 11th seed Denis Shapovalov sealed a hard-fought comeback victory by beating Italian Jannik Sinner 3-6 6-3 6-2 4-6 6-4 in the opening round.
Shapovalov sent down 12 aces and smashed 62 winners, while Sinner recorded four aces and 26 winners in the match, which lasted three hours and 55 minutes.
2209 DJOKOVIC BEGINS TITLE DEFENCE WITH EASY WIN
World number one Novak Djokovic began his title defence with a 6-3 6-1 6-2 win over French world number 61 Jeremy Chardy.
Djokovic, who captured a record-extending eighth crown at Melbourne Park last year by beating Dominic Thiem, sent down nine aces and smashed 41 winners against Chardy.
2158 RYBAKINA SEALS COMEBACK VICTORY
Kazakh 17th seed Elena Rybakina recovered from a slow start to beat lowly-ranked Russian Vera Zvonareva 4-6 6-4 6-4 to reach the second round.
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Belarusian seventh seed Aryna Sabalenka sealed a comfortable 6-0 6-4 win over 100th-ranked Viktoria Kuzmova of Slovakia to reach the second round.
World number seven Sabalenka struck 21 winners compared to eight from Kuzmova as she wrapped up the match in just over an hour.
2116 KYRGIOS WINS IN STRAIGHT SETS
Australian Nick Kyrgios beat Portuguese qualifier Frederico Ferreira Silva 6-4 6-4 6-4 in the opening round at the John Cain Arena.
World number 47 Kyrgios sent down 14 aces and hit 40 winners to wrap up the match in just under two hours.
2019 HALEP WINS IN STRAIGHT SETS
World number two Simona Halep sealed a comfortable 6-2 6-1 victory over Australian wild card Lizette Cabrera in the first round at the Rod Laver Arena.
Romanian Halep, a 2018 finalist, hit 14 winners compared to seven from Cabrera, who is ranked 140.
1926 CARRENO BUSTA DOWNS NISHIKORI IN STRAIGHT SETS
Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta advanced to the second round with a 7-5 7-6(4) 6-2 win over world number 42 Kei Nishikori.
Carreno Busta, who is seeded 15th, hit 39 winners and sent down 12 aces while Nishikori recorded 36 winners and only three aces.
1826 ANDREESCU WINS FIRST MATCH AFTER 15 MONTHS OUT
Eighth seed Bianca Andreescu overcame a mid-match wobble to beat Romanian Mihaela Buzarnescu 6-2 4-6 6-3 in her first match in 15 months.
The Canadian, who was playing for the first time since retiring from the 2019 WTA Finals in Shenzhen with a knee injury, hit 27 winners compared to 11 from her opponent and wrapped up the match in just over two hours.
1730 ZVEREV WOBBLES BUT FIGHTS BACK
Sixth seed Alexander Zverev recovered from a slow start to beat American Marcos Giron 6-7(8) 7-6(5) 6-3 6-2 on Margaret Court Arena.
The German made 19 unforced errors in the opening set and lost in a tiebreak but took control later, hitting 50 winners and 16 aces to reach the second round.
1647 THIEM BEATS KUKUSHKIN IN STRAIGHT SETS
World number three Dominic Thiem advances with a 7-6(2) 6-2 6-3 win over Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan. The Austrian third seed hit 29 winners compared to 17 from Kukushkin, who is ranked 90th.
1503 10TH SEED MONFILS CRASHES OUT
Frenchman Gael Monfils was beaten 3-6 6-4 7-5 3-6 6-3 by little-known Finn Emil Ruusuvuori in one of the day's biggest upsets so far.
Monfils, the 10th seed, hit 46 winners but also made 64 unforced errors as he was dumped out in the first round for the second time in his career, the first coming in 2006.
1418 NEAR-PERFECT PERA TOO STRONG FOR KERBER
Unseeded American Bernarda Pera stunned former champion Angelique Kerber of Germany 6-0 6-4 to reach the second round.
Pera struck 26 winners compared to just seven from Kerber as she wrapped up the biggest win of her career in just 70 minutes.
1346 SERENA EASES INTO SECOND ROUND
Serena Williams (NYSE:WMB) eased past Germany's Laura Siegemund 6-1 6-1 to reach the second round. The American hit 16 winners as she wrapped up the one-sided contest in just under an hour, and was eager to wind up her post-match interview as quickly as possible to watch the end of the Super Bowl.
"I gotta go! I gotta go! You're taking too long," she said.
1300 VENUS BEATS FLIPKENS IN STRAIGHT SETS
Venus Williams beat Belgium's Kirsten Flipkens 7-5 6-2 to reach the second round in front of about 200 fans on Margaret Court Arena.
Flipkens made 30 unforced errors compared to just 13 by Williams, who also won more than 80% of her first-serve points.
1224 U.S. OPEN CHAMPION OSAKA THROUGH
Third seed Naomi Osaka was the first player through to the second round after a 6-1 6-2 thrashing of Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
"I'm just really happy to see people in the stands. It's been a bit lonely in New York, so thank you guys," Osaka told a small crowd at Rod Laver Arena.
1109 PLAY GETS UNDERWAY AT 109TH AUSTRALIAN OPEN
Play got underway on time under leaden skies at Melbourne Park with the temperature hovering around the 17 degrees Celsius mark.
There was one locally acquired case of COVID-19 reported in the state of Victoria on Monday, a worker at a quarantine hotel not associated with the tennis.
The championships were delayed by three weeks to allow all players arriving from abroad to quarantine for two weeks.