The Times of India in Melbourne: Aryna Sabalenka’s colour-block dress, cut with a funnel collar and partial front zip, delivered a jolt of surf-inspired cool. The world No.1 elevated the statement look with custom jewellery, pairing a bold neck piece with dangling earrings for the first night match on Rod Laver Arena this year.
For a stretch of her Australian Open first-round match, Sabalenka appeared momentarily tangled, not just with the play of the 20-year-old Frenchwoman Tiantsoa Rakotomanga Rajaonah, but with the demands of her own glamorous gear. The top-seed, a two-time winner at Melbourne Park, however, overcame the early struggles to come away with a 6-4, 6-1 win.
“I haven’t played her before,” she said of the young left-hander. “I haven't really watched her games, I was struggling to find the rhythm of her shots.”
Sabalenka, who was watched by two of the biggest names in the sport, Rod Laver and Roger Federer, came into her own in the latter part of the opening set, she charged the net 22 times in the first-round match.
“I’ve definitely worked on my serve and volley,” she said. “I'm super happy to be able to do it in the match. To do it on the practice court is one thing, but to be able to be fearless and do it in a match is something else.”
The gregarious Belarusian, who snagged a selfie with the greats, felt the weight of the gaze on her.
“The whole match I was just telling myself, do not look there, please, do not look (that way),” she said, smiling. “It's incredible. I would never have thought that Roger Federer and Rod Laver were going to be sitting in the first row watching my match. It is unbelievable.”
Sabalenka, who made the final here the last three years, winning in 2023 and 2024, and falling to Madison Keys in 2025, has been working on her game consistently, looking to add variety.
“It's very important to always work on your game, always develop as a player, search for something that is new, that is going to help your game,” she said. “That's the key to being consistent,” she added.
On an opening day of scratchy starts and historic scorelines, third-seeded German Alexander Zverev overcame some tentative play against the dangerous Canadian Gabriel Diallo in a contest of the walking towers.
Zverev, 6 ft 6, last year’s finalist, knocked out the 6 ft 8’ Diallo, the 24-year-old, ranked 41, 6-7 (1), 6-1, 6-4, 6-2.
Across the grounds, at the ANZ Arena, 22-year-old Frenchwoman Elsa Jacquemot and the 20
th seed Marta Kostyuk made history by contesting the first three tie-break set women's singles match at the Australian Open in the Open Era.
Jacquemot scored over Kostyuk 6-7 (4), 7-6 (4), 7-6 (10-7) in three-hours and 31-minutes.
Things looked dire for Jacquemot in the second set with Kostyuk serving for the match, but the French pro saved a match point and regrouped to force a tiebreak. Then, late in the third set, Kostyuk rolled her ankle and required a medical timeout to have it strapped.
In one of the last matches of the day, Serbia’s Olga Danilovic staged a gutsy rally in the third set, coming back from 0-4, winning six successive games, to put out the 45-year-year wildcard entrant Venus Williams 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-4.
“It was such an amazing atmosphere, I knew most people were cheering for Venus but I could see Serbian flags in the crowd as well,” the 24-year-old Danilovic said in her on court interview. “That’s what I love about playing here, our people turn out in big numbers. It was electric.”
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