Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka have started quickly at the Australian Open.
After losing the opening game, Williams won 10 games in a row and beat Laura Siegemund 6-1, 6-1 on the first day of the tournament in Melbourne. Monday’s win marked the start of Williams’ last bid to secure a 24th major title with a record draw.
Williams, the No. 10 seed, took to the track in a colorful one-legged cat dress, and his game also looked showy. He lost just nine points in his service and got 16 winners. He saved one of his best shots for the final game, running forward to throw an off-balance setback from his rope shoes for a cross-court winner.
“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 making rhythms in a Grand Slam.”
For the past four years, Williams has been trying to match Margaret Court’s Australian record in major titles. Williams ’most recent Grand Slam championship came to Melbourne in 2017.
“I’ve had a lot of pressure and now I don’t feel it anymore,” he said. “It’s like a great relief. I think in the past I was just looking at it the wrong way and now I feel totally different.”
Williams wore a colorful one-legged cat dress that she said was inspired by former Olympic sprinter Florence Griffith Joyner, and her game also looked showy. She lost just nine points in her service and got 16 winners, and showed no sign of her right shoulder problem leading her out of a fine-tuning 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 beat 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, they come in and play so suddenly after such a long break,” Osaka said. “I think we’re all getting used to it and everyone is happy to be here.”
Osaka attracted Pavlyuchenkova, a potentially open Russian rival, a 39th-ranked Russian player who reached the quarter-finals in Melbourne in three of the last four years. But Osaka overcame the first set in 21 minutes and barely slowed down; he finished with more wins than mistakes and lost just five points in his first serve.
Osaka has won 15 straight games, including the U.S. Open final in September, since its most recent defeat in a Fed Cup game a year ago.
Serena Williams ’older sister Venus, a seven-time senior champion, won the first game at the Margaret Court Arena with a 7-5, 6-2 decision over Kirsten Flipkens.
The victory ended with the streak of four defeats of the Venus Williams in majors, the longest of its race. 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 forty-year-old to compete in the Australian Open.
“I like my job,” he said. “No matter what happens to you in life, always keep your head high and give 100 percent of the percentage. And that’s what I do every day, and I’m proud of that.”
Simona Halep quickly jumped into the second round of the Australian Open with a 6-2, 6-1 business demolition of local wildcard Lizette Cabrera on Monday.
The second-placed Romanian was in good shape as he moved his opponent across the field of the Rod Laver Arena seemingly at will and took his chances to break seriously.
Other women’s Grand Slam titles in action on opening day include double Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova and 2019 US Open winner Bianca Andreescu.
The eighth Canadian league Andreescu was forced to work hard on his return to competition after 15 months, the winner of the 2019 US Open deepening to see Mihaela Buzarnescu, of Romania, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3.
The 20-year-old, who was playing her first game since retiring from the 2019 WTA final in Shenzhen with a knee injury, moved safely to the field and showed no signs of discomfort against the number 138 of the world.
No. 23 Angelique Kerber, three-time senior champion and winner of the 2016 Australian Open, lost to American Bernarda Pera 6-0, 6-4.
Canadian Rebecca Marino, a former player in the top 40 in a Grand Slam event for the first time in eight years, beat Kimberly Birrell by a wild card 6-0, 7-6 (9). Marino had been sidelined by depression and a serious foot injury.
“I still have my great service and my great forehead. That hasn’t changed that much,” Marino said. “And I have the confidence that I know I belong again.”
Up to 30,000 fans (around 50% of capacity) will be allowed at the tournament venue, but most seats were empty to start the game on a cool morning.
“Listen, this is amazing,” Serena Williams said. “Last year it scared the world a lot. Being able to do what I love and being able to go out to compete … makes me appreciate the moment even more.”
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.