3 minute read

Jordan Thompson, James Duckworth and Dane Sweeny have joined the list of local winners in the Australian Open men's warm-up tournaments at Melbourne Park.

Veteran Matt Ebden isn't the least bit surprised that Australians can't stop winning after capping an extraordinary opening to the home hopes' summer of tennis.

Ebden, Jordan Thompson, James Duckworth, Alexei Popyrin, teenager Dane Sweeny, Andrew Harris, and Nick Kyrgios continued the surge of local successes with round-one wins during the Melbourne Summer Series on Tuesday.

Their triumphs followed Chris O'Connell, Jason Kubler, Aleksandar Vukic, Max Purcell, Alex Bolt and Harry Bourchier as winners so far this week in the three Australian Open lead-up tournaments.

World No.52 Thompson, who has spent the past month training in Canberra with Kyrgios, downed Italian Gianluca Mager 4-6 6-4 6-3.

He will next face Frenchman Pierre-Hugues Herbert.

Duckworth got the better of Czech Tomas Machac 6-3 6-4 to set up a second-round meeting with another French player, world No.32 Ugo Humbert.

Queenslander Sweeny, aged 19 and with a singles ranking of 797, scrambled past Korean Nam Ji-sung 7-6 (7-4) 7-5.

Popyrin edged out Croatian Borna Gojo in three thrilling tiebreak sets 6-7 (8-10) 7-6 (7-2) 7-6 (9-7), while veteran Ebden scored a spirited 6-3 7-6 (8-6) win over higher-ranked Argentine Federico Delbonis.

"A bunch of the Aussie guys just kept winning, winning, winning ... everybody, just about," Ebden said after his own impressive win.

"I'm not surprised really. Early in the year it's pretty usual, us Aussies. Even the younger guys always play well the first week or two of the year.

"For us it's just a continuation of training, matches, it's our home conditions. Whereas everyone else comes here and they haven't played for two, three months and not in these conditions. So it's natural that it's a big advantage."

Earlier, controversial American Tennys Sandgren overcame Australian John-Patrick Smith and his own temper to book his second-round berth.

A two-time quarter-finalist at Melbourne Park, Sandgren berated himself, screaming "I hate this stupid sport", before going on to secure a 6-3 5-7 6-4 victory over local wildcard Smith.

He also broke a racquet during the third set to earn a code violation.