As Aryna Sabalenka strode down the tunnel inside Rod Laver Enviornment that leads gamers straight to the court docket, the cameras momentarily captured an ideal shot. The pathway to Melbourne Park’s premier court docket is stuffed with giant, rectangular plaques emblazoned with the names of former champions and the dates of their triumphs.
For a second, Sabalenka stood completely subsequent to the signal that memorialised her 2023 and 2024 Australian Open victories. Already centered on new information and goals, nonetheless, she saved on shifting.
Over the following fortnight, Sabalenka will try to grow to be the primary girl in 26 years since Martina Hingis to win three consecutive Australian Open singles titles. She opened up her title defence in Melbourne with an imperious efficiency, dismantling the previous US Open champion Sloane Stephens 6-3, 6-2 to succeed in the second spherical.
After a dominant begin, Sabalenka was pulled again from 4-0 to 4-3 by Stephens within the opening set. Simply because the match may have was a particularly tight battle, Sabalenka reasserted her dominance and held on to shut out a wonderful win.
“I believe it’s a giant distinction, evaluating myself to even like three years in the past,” she stated. “In that second I’d get annoyed and doubtless would lose the primary set. I’m undecided if I’d have the ability to win the match. That’s what I keep in mind. I’m actually glad that I improved my psychological toughness, let’s say. I’m in a position to keep centered it doesn’t matter what the rating, what the state of affairs is.”
Sabalenka has now gained 28 of her previous 29 matches in Australia and he or she stays the event favorite. Because the world No 1 tries to handle the strain that comes along with her standing, Sabalenka says she is making an attempt to not concentrate on her finish objectives.
“I believe the largest lesson I realized final yr is simply not specializing in, defending titles or having the chance to place your identify on the historical past, no matter,” stated Sabalenka. “I believe the bottom line is simply to maintain specializing in your self and making an attempt your finest and see what occurs after the event.”
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Whereas Sabalenka loved an uneventful day as a result of wonderful Rod Laver Enviornment roof, the opening day on the 2025 Australian Open was in any other case a chaotic affair that was disrupted by dramatic rain storms for the primary seven hours of play. Courtroom house was so restricted in the course of the day that Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz had been pressured to concurrently prepare on the identical court docket, the 2 finest males’s gamers on the earth utilizing one half of an indoor court docket.
After ready for hours for the rain to dissipate, Nice Britain’s Sonay Kartal suffered a disappointing 6-1, 7-6(5) defeat to Jessica Bouzas Maneiro of Spain, who will face Sabalenka within the second spherical. After years of harm issues, in the meantime, 35-year-old Kei Nishikori produced a classic comeback efficiency in his first look on the Australian Open since 2021, saving two match factors earlier than recovering towards Thiago Monteiro to succeed in the second spherical with a wonderful 4-6, 6-7(4), 7-5, 6-2, 6-3 win.
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