Australian Open: Early Rounds

So the first rounds of 2014's first major are in the books and the great majority of the top players have survived the heat and their opponents.  The Americans have come out and played well, especially some of the men I didn't have much hope in.  I'll begin with them.

American Men (5-10)
Still alive: Querrey, q-Young
Won one: Sock
First round losers: 13-Isner, Smyczek, Russell, Harrison, Klahn, Johnson, q-Kudla, q-Williams, q-Odesnik
Seeds beaten: 23-Gulbis (Querrey), 24-Seppi (Young)

The disappointment here is Isner, but his ankle injury didn't help him out.  I had no confidence in Querrey to reach this stage and of course Young is a huge surprise.  I would have liked to see another couple wins from the others especially seeing that only 5 of them (Sock, Russell, Harrison, Klahn, Johnson) lost to seeded men.

American Women (12-8)
Still alive: 1-Serena, 13-Stephens, Davis, Riske
Won one: Keys, Lepchenko, McHale, l-Falconi
First round losers: Venus, Mattek-Sands, King, Vickery
Withdrew: Hampton
Seeds beaten: 23-Vesnina (Riske)

A good showing here by the younger group.  Davis and Riske are a nice surprise but I would have liked to see Keys get another win or two especially since the draw opened up in her section but she lost to Zheng.  Also all of these women lost to seeded players except Keys and Vickery (l. to Davis).  Lepchenko and McHale lost in 3 sets to Halep and Wozniacki.

Overall Seeds Out
Men R1: 12-Haas, 13-Isner, 21-Kohlschreiber (w/d)
Men R2: 5-Del Potro, 14-Youzhny, 23-Gulbis, 24-Seppi, 30-Tursunov, 31-Verdasco, 32-Dodig
Women R1: 6-Kvitova, 7-Errani, 12-Vinci, 19-Kuznetsova, 21-Cirstea, 23-Vesnina, 24-Kanepi, 27-Hampton (w/d)
Women R2: 15-Lisicki, 18-Flipkens, 32-Rybarikova

So 10 men's seeds are out and 11 women's seeds are out.  These numbers are right in line with the averages at the majors the past few years, and actually slightly below average for the women when Hampton's injury isn't counted.  Interesting that the men suffered most in the second round (all the losers in the round 1 were injury related) and the women fared worst in the first round.

Unseeded Players Remaining
Men Direct Entry: Roberto Bautista Agut (ESP), Teymuraz Gabashvili (RUS), Edouard Roger-Vasselin (FRA), Florian Mayer (GER), Sam Querrey (USA), Denis Istomin (UZB)
Men Qualifiers: Donald Young (USA), Damir Dzumhur (BIH)
Men Lucky Losers: Stephane Robert (FRA), Martin Klizan (SVK)
Women Direct Entry: Jie Zheng (CHN), Lauren Davis (USA), Monica Niculescu (ROU), Alison Riske (USA), Mona Barthel (GER), Kurumi Nara (JPN), Garbine Muguruza (ESP), Elina Svitolina (UKR), Yvonne Meusburger (AUT)
Women Qualifier: Zarina Diyas (KAZ)
Women Wildcard: Casey Dellacqua (AUS)

-Dzumhur was the first Bosnian to play in major main draw, then he won 2 matches!
-The two lucky losers will play each other, so there will be a lucky loser in the round of 16.  Klizan was seeded at last year's Aussie Open
-Mayer, Querrey, Niculescu, and Barthel have all been seeded recently
-Former boys AO champs still in the draw are Monfils and Young
-Former girls AO champs still in the draw are Jankovic, Azarenka, and Pavlyuchenkova

Only Del Potro, Kvitova, and Errani are top 10 players who been dismissed so we should have plenty of outstanding tennis ahead of us.  More later.