Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka quickly left for the Australian Open.
After losing the opening game, Williams won 10 games in a row and defeated Laura Siegemund 6-1, 6-1 on the first day of the Melbourne tournament. Monday’s victory marked the start of Williams’ latest bid for a 24th major title.
Williams, serial no. 10, took the field in a colorful one-legged suit, and her game also looked brilliant. He lost only nine points at work and hit 16 winners. She saved one of her best photos for the final game by running forward to return a balance back off the shoes for a winner on the cross field.
“It was a good start – vintage Rena,” said Williams, who has become the only woman since the Open era began in 1968 to play 100 Australian Open matches (record 88-12). “It’s definitely good. I’m pretty good at going to a Grand Slam.”
For the past four years, Williams has tried to match Australian Margaret Court’s record for major titles. Williams’ most recent Grand Slam championship came to Melbourne in 2017.
“I had a ton of pressure and now I don’t feel it,” she said. “It’s like a huge relief. I think I’ve just been looking at it wrong in the past and I feel totally different about it now.”
Williams wore a colorful one-legged suit, which she said was inspired by former Olympic sprinter Florence Griffith Joyner, and her game also looked brilliant. She lost just nine points at work and hit 16 winners and showed no signs of a right shoulder problem that caused her to retire from a tuneup tournament.
Osaka no. 3, who won the title in Melbourne two years ago, played the first match of the tournament at Rod Laver Arena and defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-1, 6-2.
The first tournament of this year’s Grand Slam season began after a three-week delay due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“Physically, I feel like everyone else – their bodies are shocked, coming in and playing so suddenly after such a long break,” Osaka said. “I think we’re all used to it and everyone is happy to be here.”
Osaka drew a potential opening opponent in Pavlyuchenkova, a 39th-ranked Russian player who has reached the quarter-finals in Melbourne in three of the last four years. But Osaka quickly got through the first set in 21 minutes and barely slowed down after that; he finished with more winners than errors and lost just five points in his first serve.
Osaka has won 15 straight matches, including the US Open final in September, since its most recent loss in a Fed Cup match a year ago.
Venus, the older sister of Serena Williams, seven-time major champion, won the first match at Margaret Court Arena with a 7-5, 6-2 decision over Kirsten Flipkens.
The win ended the four matches of Venus Williams in the major, the longest in her career. The victory came in the 88th match of Williams’ Grand Slam, a women’s record.
At 40, Williams is the oldest woman in the lottery this year and only the sixth player in her 40s to compete in the Australian Open.
“I like my job,” she said. “No matter what happens in your life, you always keep your head up and give 100 million percent. And that’s what I do every day, and that’s what I can be proud of.”
Simona Halep quickly jumped into the second round of the Australian Open with a 6-2, 6-1 demolition of a local Lizette Cabrera wildcard on Monday.
The second ranked Romanian showed in a beautiful form while moving her opponent around the field Rod Laver Arena apparently to her liking and took the opportunity of her break-point opportunities.
Other women’s Grand Slam titles in action on opening day include two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova and 2019 US Open winner Bianca Andreescu.
After eight months, Andreescu had to work hard to return to competition after 15 months, the winner of the 2019 US Open digging deep to see Mihaela Buzarnescu from Romania 6-2, 4-6, 6-3.
The 20-year-old, who played her first match since retiring from the 2019 WTA finals in Shenzhen, with a knee injury, moved safely on the field and showed no signs of discomfort against world no. 138.
Nr. 23, Angelique Kerber, three-time major champion and winner of the 2016 Australian Open, lost to American Bernarda Pera 6-0, 6-4.
Canadian Rebecca Marino, a former top 40 player competing in a Grand Slam event for the first time in eight years, defeated Kimberly Birrell 6-0, 7-6 (9). Marino had been relieved of depression and a serious leg injury.
“I still have my great service and great forehead. That hasn’t changed that much,” Marino said. “And I’m confident I know they belong again.”
Up to 30,000 fans – about 50% of capacity – will be allowed on the tournament website, but seats were generally empty for the start of the game on a cold morning.
“Listen, it’s amazing,” said Serena Williams. “Last year was very scary for the world. To be able to do what I like and to be able to go out and compete … makes me appreciate the moment even more.”
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to the report.