Aleksandar Vukic did not just get through his opening match in Washington D.C.; he blew past it. The 30-year-old Australian beat Zachary Svajda 6-3, 6-1 on Monday and moved into a second-round meeting with Lorenzo Musetti at the ATP hard-court event.
The result mattered because Vukic needed only 51 minutes to finish the job, a sharp turn for a player ranked world No.105 against an opponent at world No.73. It was also his cleanest statement yet in the draw, after qualifying for the main field with two straight-sets wins and then carrying that form into the main event.
That made the scoreline more striking. Svajda had won the previous three matches between the pair in straight sets, so Vukic’s 6-3, 6-1 win was not just a routine advance. He also had to recover from moments of pressure, with his serve broken twice in each set, but still controlled the match from start to finish.
The larger picture in Washington D.C. is starting to take shape around the seeds and the qualifiers who have already forced their way into the conversation. Alex de Minaur is the top seed and defending champion, Lorenzo Musetti is the fourth seed and world No.15, and Vukic’s reward for his opening win is a quick test against the player now sitting directly in his path. In the same event, Cruz Hewitt qualified for the main draw after Zachary Svajda and Dusan Lajovic both retired while trailing him, and he will next face Marcos Giron.
Vukic’s road to this point has not been smooth either. He arrived after losses in Eastbourne, Wimbledon and Newport, then found momentum in qualifying by beating Alex Bolt 6-0, 6-1 before carrying that edge into the main draw. The next match now tells the real story: whether the world No.105 can turn a fast first-round win into something bigger against Musetti, who is the kind of opponent who usually makes that question a hard one.
