{"id":408528,"date":"2026-01-12T15:24:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T15:24:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/408528\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T15:24:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T15:24:14","slug":"alexei-popyrin-emerson-jones-bow-out-of-adelaide-international-as-ajla-tomljanovic-advances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/408528\/","title":{"rendered":"Alexei Popyrin, Emerson Jones bow out of Adelaide International as Ajla Tomljanovi\u0107 advances"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alexei Popyrin has lost in the first round of the Adelaide International in straight sets against Reilly Opelka.<\/p>\n

Emerson Jones was knocked out of the tournament losing her match against Emma Navarro, as fellow Australians Ajla Tomljanovi\u0107 and Aleksandar Vukic were victorious in their respective matches.<\/p>\n

Opelka, the powerful American, hit 22 aces as he cruised to victory 6-3, 7-6 (8\/6) over Popyrin.<\/p>\n

At times throughout the match, Popyrin showed glimpses of his game that took him inside the top 20 rankings last year, but ultimately he was off the pace.<\/p>\n

He only made 68 per cent of his first serves and lost a crucial break point in the second set just as it appeared he had some momentum.<\/p>\n

Opelka showed his speed across the baseline on a number of occasions throughout the match.<\/p>\n

For the 17-year-old Jones, the sixth seed, Navarro, was too strong for her, winning in straight sets, 6-3, 6-3.<\/p>\n

There were some good signs for Jones in the match though, as she managed to break Navarro’s serve twice.<\/p>\n

Despite the defeat, Jones has confidence going into what will be her second Australian Open.<\/p>\n

Loading Instagram content<\/p>\n

“The experiences, knowing that I’ve played these women before and that level. I definitely think I came into the match knowing how they play, and it gives me the confidence knowing the level,” she told Tennis Australia.<\/p>\n

Jones, who is the former junior world number one, is ranked 147 in the world on the women’s tour.<\/p>\n

“I feel like [my level] is there playing the top 50 players, I’m OK, my serve is good, but when you take another step up, like today, things just have to get a little bit better,” she said.<\/p>\n

Tomljanovi\u0107, Vukic win<\/p>\n

Elsewhere at the Adelaide International, Tomljanovi\u0107 and Vukic progressed in their respective matches.<\/p>\n

Tomljanovi\u0107 moved into the second round of the tournament after her opponent, Clara Tauson, retired hurt.<\/p>\n

\"Ajla<\/p>\n

Ajla Tomljanovi\u0107 advanced via a walkover in the opening round. (Getty Images: Sarah Reed)<\/p>\n

The Australian won the first set in a tiebreak as the Dane struggled to find her stride, clearly dealing with an injury.<\/p>\n

She will face the winner of the match between compatriot Maya Joint and 2020 Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin in the second round.<\/p>\n

Vukic defeated Britain’s Jacob Fearnley in three sets in a qualifying match for the tournament. It ended 4-6, 7-6 (9\/7), 3-6.<\/p>\n

The Australian was almost flawless with his serves, only giving up one double fault in the match.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alexei Popyrin has lost in the first round of the Adelaide International in straight sets against Reilly Opelka.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":408529,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[91327,64302,70625,64,63,66054,85,747,198652],"class_list":{"0":"post-408528","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-adelaide-international","9":"tag-ajla-tomljanovic","10":"tag-aleksandar-vukic","11":"tag-au","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-emerson-jones","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-tennis","16":"tag-thanasi-kokkinakis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=408528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/408529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}