Number 5 seed Aryna Sabalenka cruised past Tereza Martincova 6-1 6-4 in 1 hour and 9 minutes to advance to the second round.
Sabalenka won the 11th WTA Tour title of her career at Adelaide International 1 a week ago. She has started the 2023 season with a 5-0 record for the third time in the past five seasons.
Sabalenka saved four of her five break points at 1-1 in the opening set and broke twice in the fourth and sixth games to cruise through to a 6-1 in the first set.
Sabalenka saved Martincova’s final break point with a rally forehand pass down the line at 1-0 in the second set. The Belarusian player saved it before earning the decisive break in the third game to take a 2-1 lead. She held on her next service games without facing any break points to close out the second set 6-4.
“I am super happy with the win. Ir wasn’t an easy match. I am just happy with the good start. The only thing I can say is that I am really working hard. Physically, mentally I am ready to go deep in Melbourne. Hopefully I will do my best on court, and I will go deep. I am really doing everything I can do to get as far as I can. It’s tough to say that. This time I am going to make a final. I am going to win a Grand Slam”, said Sabalenka.
Number 4 seed Caroline Garcia cruised past Canadian qualifier and world number 190 Catherine Sebov 6-3 6-0 after 1 hour and 5 minutes. Sebov was making her Grand Slam debut and playing against a top 10 player for the first time in her career.
One year ago Garcia was ranked outside the top 70 and lost to qualifier aHailey Baptiste in the first round of the Australian Open. Last season the French player won in Cincinnati and the WTA Finals title beating Sabalenka in Fort Worth climbing to world number 4.
The first set went on serve in the first seven games before Garcia broke serve with a forehand winner to take a 5-3 lead.
The French player closed out the first set with two consecutive aces before breaking three times to cruise through to a bagel win in the second set.
“I am pretty happy with the first match. It’s never easy to start the tournament. Today the conditions were tough, a couple ralliy games were a bit tight. The ball was not going out of the racquet very fast in the first couple of games. Then with time it got better and better. I am glad I stayed calm and just focused one point at a time to be able to improve and stay positive. On the Rod Laver Arena it was pretty nice. Obviously it was warm. It was nice to be able to walk in the shadow a little bit when you were able able to serve, but I did not feel that such warm weather. There were nervesObviously there is. I think there will always be some. That mean I care about what I am doing. I was not expecting at the beginning to play on Rod Laver Arena, so I was a little bit surprised when I saw the schedule out. It’s my first win on Rod Laver Arena, so it was pretty nice”, said Garcia.
