![\"McCartney](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/106c83face8ae657a6098d537828719b.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nLast year’s Australian Open finalists Madison Keys and Aryna Sabalenka have both started their 2026 campaigns in the best possible way with victories at the Brisbane International.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Defending Australian Open champion Keys earned a 6-4, 6-3 victory over McCarthy Kessler in the second round on Pat Rafter Arena.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Sabalenka laid down an awesome marker with a brutal 6-0, 6-1 demolition of Cristina Buc\u0219a in the very next match.<\/p>\n
“It’s always a little nerve-wracking playing your first match of the year,” Keys said on court after the win.<\/p>\n
“I felt like I was trying to knock a little bit of the rust off, but overall really happy with how today went.”<\/p>\n
Making predictions based on just two sets of tennis is rarely advisable, but at times Keys looked impressively slick in her victory.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And despite a disappointing end to the 2025 season that saw her lose eight of her 17 matches since a quarter-final run at Roland Garros, including a first-round exit at the US Open, Keys looks likely to be a threat in Melbourne Park.<\/p>\n
The world number seven came out the blocks strongly, hitting clean, crisp winners with a businesslike intensity from behind the baseline.<\/p>\n
Her heavy groundstrokes earned her an early break but the first set ended up proving to be far from plain sailing.<\/p>\n
A combination of Keys’s own ring rust and some inventive, attractive tennis from Kessler turned the contest into a serious battle.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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McCartney Kessler played a valiant all-court game, but could not stay with Madison Keys. (Getty Images: Albert Perez)<\/p>\n
Keys had never faced fellow American Kessler, the world number 31, in a match on the WTA tour.<\/p>\n
But the 26-year-old from Georgia would have made a lasting impression with an impressive response to being broken early.<\/p>\n
“She’s such a great player,” Keys said on court after the win.<\/p>\n
“She’s such a great competitor so I knew it was going to be a great match.”<\/p>\n
The 26-year-old attacked with her punchy two-handed backhand from the baseline and tested Keys scrambling in the humid conditions.<\/p>\n
Keys was broken in the seventh game and had to stave off two break points in the ninth as Kessler fought back.<\/p>\n
But every time Kessler’s serve was in the slot, Keys crushed it for a dominant winner and ended up converting a fifth break point to claim the first set.<\/p>\n
![\"Madison](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/c044327d32ecd7a7ecdd686bf5d588f1.jpeg\")
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Madison Keys said she had worked on starting her points stronger in the offseason. (Getty Images: Albert Perez)<\/p>\n
The second set started in the same vein as the first, as Keys was again tested by Kessler’s movement up and down the court.<\/p>\n
Both women earned early break points that neither could convert, before Keys’ power told, breaking Kessler twice on her way to a comfortable victory in an hour and 26 minutes.<\/p>\n
“It feels amazing coming back to Australia,” Keys, who also won the Adelaide International last season, said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Obviously last year was a dream come true and something that I’ll remember as one of my career moments.<\/p>\n
“I would obviously love a repeat of last year but that’s asking for a lot if you’re asking to leave the country undefeated.<\/p>\n
“That’s always the goal but so far so good.”<\/p>\n
Sabalenka destroys world number 50 in awesome display![\"Aryna](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/38b3f449e06739d8d57b692180cac78c.jpeg\")
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Aryna Sabalenka treated her second round opponent with utter contempt. (Getty Images: Albert Perez)<\/p>\n
So far so good for Keys, but the form of the woman she denied a hat-trick of victories at Melbourne Park last year, world number one Sabalenka, appears a serious obstacle to Keys going back-to-back.<\/p>\n
Sabalenka’s 48-minute destruction of 50-ranked Romanian Cristina Bucsa was as impressive to witness as it was doubtless shattering to be on the end of.<\/p>\n
The slightly-built Romanian was totally blown away, wilting in the presence of Sabalenka’s brilliance.<\/p>\n
If the match was happening in the school playground you’d have wanted a teacher to stop it to avoid allegations of bullying.<\/p>\n
But it wasn’t.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This was the world number one against the world number 50 \u2014 hardly a mismatch on paper but still discarded in a way that felt desperately ominous to the rest of the field.<\/p>\n
There are few players who can match the athleticism and power of Sabalenka, but her competitiveness is on another level too.<\/p>\n
Bucsa only won 22 points in the entire match, a handful from Sabalenka’s own mistakes.<\/p>\n
But those unforced errors were all treated as almost a personal affront by Sabalenka, furious to give her opponent a sniff of success against her.<\/p>\n
Keys, the seventh seed and Sabalenka, the first, are scheduled to meet in the quarter-finals in Brisbane should they both win their next matches.\u00a0<\/p>\n