American Brooksby Beats No. 2 Ruud at Australian Open

Tiafoe and Brooksby are among the seven American men who have so far advanced to the round of 32 at this Australian Open. The group includes Sebastian Korda, the 22-year-old son of former Australian Open men’s champion Petr Korda, and Ben Shelton, the 20-year-old son of former pro Bryan Shelton. The younger Shelton turned professional last year after winning the N.C.A.A. men’s singles title for the University of Florida and is into the third round in his first Australian Open.

Brooksby will face one of his compatriots, Tommy Paul, in the third round. Paul advanced with a 6-2, 2-6, 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-4 victory on Thursday over Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain.

“From my perspective, I think we all push each other to really get better, regardless of each guy’s situation,” Brooksby said. “I think that’s shown in a lot of the guys having strong results lately.”

The American men were not the only ones succeeding in Melbourne on Thursday. The American Katie Volynets, a 21-year-old qualifier ranked outside the top 100, recorded the biggest upset of the women’s tournament so far by defeating the No. 9 seed, Veronika Kudermetova of Russia, by 6-4, 2-6, 6-2. It was Volynets’s first match against a top 10 player, and she did not back down: competing and moving impressively as Kudermetova repeatedly cracked first in the baseline rallies.

Volynets, like Brooksby and McDonald, is from Northern California. The daughter of Ukrainian immigrants, she was raised in Walnut Creek, near San Francisco.

That, at this stage in the tournament, should come as no surprise.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/19/sports/tennis/casper-ruud-loses-australian-open.html