Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka are off to a fast start at the Australian Open.
After Williams lost the opening match, Williams won ten games in a row and beat Laura Siegemund 6-1, 6-1 on the first day of the tournament in Melbourne. Monday’s victory marked the start of Williams’ latest bid for a 24th major title.
Williams, the No. 10 seed, took the court in a colorful one-legged cat leg, and her game also looked flashy. She lost only nine points on her discount and scored 16 winners. She saved one of her best shots for the final game and rushed forward to drop a back balance from outside her shoes for a cross-country winner.
“It was a great start – vintage Rena,” said Williams, who has become the only woman since the Open era began in 1968 to play 100 Australian Open matches (88-12 record). “It’s definitely good. I’m pretty good at running myself on a Grand Slam.”
For the past four years, Williams has been trying to match Australian Margaret Court’s record for major titles. Williams’ most recent Grand Slam Championship took place in 2017 in Melbourne.
“I was under a lot of pressure, and now I do not feel it anymore,” she said. ‘It’s like a big relief. I think I just looked wrong in the past and now feel completely different about it. ‘
Williams wore a colorful one-legged cat suit that she said was inspired by former Olympic sprinter Florence Griffith Joyner, and her game also looked flashy. She lost only nine points on her tee shot and scored 16 winners, showing no signs of the right-shoulder issue that led to her being able to reach a tune-up tournament.
Nr. 3 Osaka, who won the title in Melbourne two years ago, played the first match of the tournament at Rod Laver Arena and beat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-1, 6-2.
The first tournament of this year’s Grand Slam season started after a three-week delay due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“Physically I feel like everyone else – their bodies are shocked, come in and play so suddenly after such a long break,” Osaka said. “I think we all get used to it, and everyone’s just happy to be here.”
Osaka took on a potentially tough opponent in the opening in Pavlyuchenkova, a 39th-ranked Russian player who has reached the quarter-finals in Melbourne over the past four years. But Osaka broke the first set in 21 minutes and then barely slowed down; she ends up with more winners than mistakes and loses just five points on her first serve.
Osaka has won 15 consecutive games, including the US Open in September, since its most recent loss in a Fed Cup game a year ago.
Serena Williams’ older sister Venus, a seven-time grand champion, won the first game at Margaret Court Arena with a 7-5, 6-2 decision over Kirsten Flipkens.
The victory ended Venus Williams’ four-game losing streak on majors, the longest in her career. The victory came in Williams’ 88th Grand Slam match, a women’s record.
At 40, Williams is the oldest woman in this year’s draw and only the sixth player in her forties to take part in the Australian Open.
“I like my job,” she said. ‘No matter what happens to you in life, you always keep your head up and give 100 million percent. And that’s what I do every day, and that’s something I can be proud of. ‘
Simona Halep quickly skipped the second round of the Australian Open with a matter-of-fact 6-2, 6-1 demolition of local game card Lizette Cabrera.
The second-seeded Romanian looked in fine form when she apparently moved her opponent to the Rod Laver Arena track at will and utilized her break points with little utilization.
Other Grand Slam singles titles for women in action on opening day include two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova and 2019 US Open winner Bianca Andreescu.
Canadian eighth-seeded Andreescu was made to work hard on her return to competition after 15 months, and the 2019 US Open winner dug deep to oust Romania’s Mihaela Buzarnescu 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 .
The 20-year-old, who has played her first game since retiring from the 2019 WTA final in Shenzhen with a knee injury, has certainly moved on the track and shown no signs of discomfort towards world no. 138 not shown.
Nr. 23 Angelique Kerber, a three-time Grand Champion and Australian Open winner in 2016, lost to American Bernarda Pera 6-0, 6-4.
Canadian Rebecca Marino, a former top 40 player who is taking part in a Grand Slam event for the first time in eight years, beat Kimberly Birrell 6-0, 7-6 (9). Marino was sidelined by depression and a serious foot injury.
“I still have my big serve and my big forehead. It hasn’t changed that much,” Marino said. “And I have the confidence that I know I belong again.”
Up to 30,000 fans – about 50% of the capacity – are allowed on the tournament, but seats were mostly empty for the start of the game on a cool morning.
“Listen, it’s amazing,” Serena Williams said. “Last year was very scary for the world. To be able to do what I love and to be able to compete … it makes me appreciate the moment even more.”
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.