MELBOURNE: Tenth seed and last year's semi-finalist CoCo Vandeweghe was sent packing from the Australian Open in the first round Monday on a horror day for American women.

Vendeweghe, who also made the last four at the US Open in 2017, was knocked out by Hungary's Timea Babos 7-6 (7/4), 6-2.

She was the third American big name to fall on day one of the year's opening Grand Slam.

Joining her on the sidelines was seven-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams, who lost to Belinda Bencic, and US Open Champion Sloane Stephens, who was defeated by Zhang Shuai of China.

Hungarian world number 51 Babos took just an hour an 46 minutes to oust a tetchy Vandeweghe, who complained to the umpire after dropping the first set about a lack of bananas on the Hisense Arena court.

Coached by former Wimbledon champion Pat Cash, the American committed 28 unforced errors.