{"id":263961,"date":"2023-01-16T04:11:53","date_gmt":"2023-01-16T05:11:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=263961"},"modified":"2023-01-16T21:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-01-16T21:00:00","slug":"aussie-underdog-speechless-after-158k-payday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=263961","title":{"rendered":"Aussie underdog 'speechless' after $158k payday"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wildcard Olivia Gadecki was the first Aussie through to the second round of the 2023 Australian Open<\/a>, defeating Polina Kudermetova 7-5, 6-1.<\/p>\n

It was the 20-year-old's first win in the main draw of a grand slam.<\/p>\n

The world No.199 clinched the first break to win the opening set – those two games eventually forming part of a run of seven straight games to race out to a 5-0 lead in the second set.<\/p>\n

FOLLOW LIVE:<\/strong> Australian Open 2023 day one\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> 'Crazed': Doco uncovers McEnroe's shame<\/strong><\/a>\ufeff<\/strong><\/p>\n

\ufeff<\/strong><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Alcott's hilarious first meeting with tennis 'king'<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Olivia<\/p>\n

Kudermetova did manage to get on the board, before Gadecki, from the Gold Coast, calmly served it out.<\/p>\n

Mentored at the slam by retired champion Ash Barty, Gadecki conceded just nine points on serve for the match.<\/p>\n

Watch the Australian Open live and free on the Nine Network: Channel 9, 9Gem and <\/strong><\/em>9NOW<\/strong><\/em><\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

With her opening round victory, the promising youngster will pocket $158,000\ufeff for her efforts. That will increase significantly if she can win again in round two.<\/p>\n

"I actually can't believe it. I mean wow \u2026 I'm speechless," she told Nine after the match.<\/p>\n

"(My) home slam, my first ever grand slam main-draw win.<\/p>\n

"A girl could only dream, you know."<\/p>\n

\"Match<\/p>\n

Immediately after her win, Gadecki embraced family in the crowd – including her mum Natalia.<\/p>\n

"She's sacrificed and dedicated a lot of time and effort into my career, so this win really means a lot," Gadecki said of her mum.<\/p>\n

Gadecki also gave a nod to the retiring Sam Stosur, who will play her final professional tournament in both the women's and mixed doubles draws.<\/p>\n

"Sam had an amazing career, but I guess it's time for the next-gen to come through and I'm to follow in her footsteps," she said.<\/p>\n

She will face Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk – who knocked out No.28 seed Amanda Anisimova – in round two.<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wildcard Olivia Gadecki was the first Aussie through to the second round of the 2023 Australian Open, defeating Polina Kudermetova 7-5, 6-1. It was the […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263961"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=263961"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263961\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":263963,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263961\/revisions\/263963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=263961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=263961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=263961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}