WA’s Matthew Ebden has progressed to the second round of the Australian Open after cruising past Brazilian Joao Souza in straight sets 6-3 7-6(1) 6-2.
The 24 year old from Wembley Downs played solidly the entire match and kept his momentum high as he raced through his straight sets win. The crowd were electrifyingly vocal, with Austraian and custom chants bellowing throughout the packed Margaret Arena crowd.
“[I] tried not to overrate it coming into here,” he said.
“[I was] just doing my thing, enjoying myself, keeping it pretty simple and low-key, just keeping my focus. [I’m] not too fussed and worried about all the other stuff.”
“Yeah, I was very happy,” Ebden said.
“I think I served well, returned very well, put a lot of pressure on [Souza], created a lot of chances to break.”
“I think I’ve shown, in the last year or two, I’ve shown myself and my team where I can belong in world tennis [and] the level I can play at,” he said.
“[I’m] confident that I’m moving in the right direction.”
Ebden will play 24th seed Kei Nishikori in the second round on Thursday.
Ebden will join fellow West Australian Casey Dellacqua in the 2nd round, with co-patriot Bojana Bobusic going down to Angelique Kerber in straight sets this afternoon. Dellacqua will play her second round match against the number 3 seed Victoria Azarenka tomorrow.
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