MELBOURNE, Australia — Aryna Sabalenka admitted she was a little bit nervous with Rod Laver and Roger Federer in the crowd for her first-round win at the Australian Open on Sunday.
The top-ranked Sabalenka, who won the Australian title in 2023 and ’24 and was runner-up last year to Madison Keys, lost the first three points and dropped her opening service game before rallying to beat Tiantsoa Rakotomanga Rajaonah 6-4, 6-1.
“I didn’t start my best. She showed up. Fired on. She was playing great,” Sabalenka said of the left-handed Rakotomanga Rajaonah, a 20-year-old French wild-card entry. “It was a tricky start. I’m super happy I found my rhythm at the end of the second set.”
Sabalenka prepared for the first major of the season with a title in Brisbane, which included a quarterfinal win over Keys. She has been in good form, and is into her 74th week with the women’s No. 1 ranking.
In her on-court interview, she said she’d snuck a look and saw Laver, the Australian great who has the main court named in his honor, and 20-time major winner Federer sitting in adjoining seats.
“I’m a huge fan. I wanted to show great tennis so you guys enjoyed watching me play,” she said. “There was definitely a lot of pressure. I was walking thinking ‘don’t look there, don’t look there!'”
She shrugged that off and found her rhythm and was content with a straight-sets win.
“I mean, first of all, it’s the first match, right? You’re always kind of trying to figure out where you are,” she said.
Two seeded players were eliminated in the opening afternoon Sunday, with Elsa Jacquemot ousting No. 20 Marta Kostyuk 6-7 (4), 7-6 (4), 7-6 (7) and Turkish qualifier Zeynep Sonmez upsetting No. 11 Ekaterina Alexandrova 7-5, 4-6, 6-4.
Sönmez halted her match briefly in the second set to help a ball kid who appeared to be struggling in the heat before the tournament medical team took over.
Seventh-seeded Jasmine Paolini beat Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-1, 6-2, and No. 12 Elina Svitolina and Maria Sakkari also advanced in straight sets.
Former Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova withdrew because of a shoulder injury before her scheduled first-round match, giving a place in the main draw to Taylor Townsend, the lucky loser from qualifying, to take on Hailey Baptiste.
In a 2 1/2-hour all-American contest on Court 13, Baptiste prevailed 6-3, 6-7 (3), 6-3.
