U.S. hopefuls Stephens, Sock, Isner, CoCo tumble on Day 1 in Melbourne

MELBOURNE — The Day 1 schedule at the Australian Open featured 15 Americans hitting the bright blue courts of Melbourne Park. Only three remained in the draw by the time day turned into night.

No. 13-seeded Sloane Stephens kicked things off for the red, white and blue inside Margaret Court Arena against Zhang Shuai. The biggest question was which Stephens would come to the court on Monday: the US Open champion, or the rusty player she’s been since New York?

Despite a promising start, Stephens would lose her eighth straight match, 2-6, 7-6 (2), 6-2. Stephens has not walked off the court a winner since capturing the US Open in September. But she's not that worried about it.

"I wouldn't call them tough times. Everyone is so depressed and so down. It happens to everyone," she said. "Like, eventually I'll start, what I told you in D.C., I'm going to beat someone eventually. I will have the best Instagram picture when I finally snap this losing streak. It's just a learning experience."

The good news for Stephens is how far she has come in just one year—literally. Last January, she was thousands of miles away from Melbourne, nursing a foot injury that required surgery. Since coming back in July, the 24-year-old’s ranking has zoomed from No. 957 to No. 13, but she doesn’t seem to have found her footing just yet.

"Even though I lost, I'm not too sad," she said. "Everything is good. Relax, everybody. It will be okay. Don't worry. We will get back to having fun soon. Just give me a little bit to regroup and we will be okay."

Zhang is no stranger to success in Melbourne, and she’s a big player favorite on tour. Just look at what she said about Stephens after the match:

“I like her so much,” Zhang said. “I’m really happy to play against her because she’s a great player and I always play great players on this court. I am really lucky.”

Monday must have felt like déjà vu for Zhang. The world No. 34 won her first-ever Grand Slam main-draw match here in 2016, defeating a No. 2-ranked Simona Halep in her opener on her way to the quarterfinals. She had lost a staggering 14 Grand Slam matches until that fateful day.

“This court really special for me, and when I come back here I feel so excited,” Zhang said. “I think [I was] ready today.”

Stephens, meanwhile, was not—yet.

"It's a new season. Luckily there is time to get in the best shape and make sure that I'm ready for my next tournaments," Stephens said. "I think I just am kind of working to get ready, match ready and everything."

Stephens wasn't the only seeded American woman to go down, with No. 10-seeded CoCo Vandeweghe falling to Timea Babos, 7-6 (4), 6-2 and No. 5-seeded Venus Williams losing to Belinda Bencic, 6-3, 7-5. By the day session's end, the only American women's winner was Nicole Gibbs (with a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Viktoriya Tomova).

Vandeweghe had her hands full with a red-hot Babos and a bad case of the flu.

"I thought all considering I played pretty well for not hitting a ball in four days, and feeling like I do," Vandeweghe said. "I tried my best. It's disappointing, but luckily there's three other Grand Slams."

This makes Madison Keys the only remaining US Open women's semifinalist left in the Australian Open draw. That may seem like an odd thing to say, but four Americans reached the final four in Flushing Meadows.

"Last year was last year," Venus Williams said. "This is a new year. You can't live in the previous year. It's impossible."

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On the men's side, unseeded Ryan Harrison became the first American to score a win at the 2018 Australian Open, ousting Dudi Sela, 6-3, 5-7, 3-6, 7-5, 6-2. He achieved a milestone in front of a crowd that heavily backed the Israeli.

"I think it's my first five-set win ever too," the recent Brisbane finalist said. "I worked really hard and tried to get in the best shape as I could—probably the best shape of my career—in the offseason. To have it pay off in a five-set win right off the gates is a really good feeling."

Qualifier Mackenzie McDonald would earn the second win on a day full of American losses. He got past Elias Ymer, 6-4, 6-3, 4-6, 6-1. McDonald played three seasons for UCLA, turning pro in 2016 after his junior year with an NCAA singles title in hand. It's his first ATP win, ever.

"Playing tennis isn’t the easiest thing especially at the Challenger level and I started playing some Futures too," McDonald said about his pro life so far. "It's a tough journey, but it can be really rewarding—moments like this is what you play for. I’ve put in a lot of hard work, but there's a lot of ups and downs."

The American men's seeds felt those downs on Monday. No. 16 seed John Isner dropped his opener to Matthew Ebden, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.

"I came into the match a little bit undercooked, only playing one match in the year," Isner said. "I was flat and couldn't kick it into fifth gear at all. I was just stuck in neutral it felt like. That's pretty disappointing too."

Isner is on his way home to get "back to the drawing board." It's something Jack Sock—the highest seeded American male at No. 8—echoed after losing to Yuichi Sugita, 6-1, 7-6 (4), 5-7, 6-3.

"It's a tough sport," Sock said. "People lose, it happens. It wasn't my day. It wasn't John's day. It wasn't some of the American women's day."

Sock will need to adjust now that he's inside the Top 10, with events like the ATP Finals adding to his loaded schedule.

"It's a weird feeling. You're on the highest of highest after making it," he said. "In your head you have a couple of weeks to train, but then its back to reality and the grind of it. By the time I took my necessary time off after the season I only had a little bit of time to get ready. Just some adjusting to do."

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