\u201cBut overall just happy. I\u2019m pleased about the level that I played today,\u201d added Alcaraz, who was playing his first competitive match for nine weeks.<\/p>\n
Alcaraz has won the US Open, Wimbledon and French Open, but Melbourne is the one Grand Slam missing from his impressive resum\u00e9.<\/p>\n
The furthest he has gone at the opening major of the year is the quarter-finals and he has made it clear that dethroning rival Jannik Sinner as champion is his main aim for 2026.<\/p>\n
If he does so, the 22-year-old would surpass compatriot Rafael Nadal to become the youngest man to complete the career Grand Slam.<\/p>\n
Earlier, in steamy conditions approaching highs of 30C, Zverev threatened to implode in losing the first set to Canada\u2019s Gabriel Diallo.<\/p>\n
But the 28-year-old German recovered to win 6-7 (1\/7), 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 and next meets Australian Alexei Popyrin or Alexandre Muller of France.<\/p>\n
Asked how he reset from his first-set wobble, the third seed said: \u201cI was thinking it can\u2019t get worse than that.\u201d<\/p>\n
British qualifier Arthur Fery scored the first big upset by taking down 20th seed Flavio Cobolli of Italy, 7-6 (7\/1), 6-4, 6-1.<\/p>\n
Novak Djokovic, who is chasing a record 25th major title, begins his title assault on Monday, as does three-time runner-up Daniil Medvedev.<\/p>\n
Organisers said that a record 100,000 people came through the gates, although there were complaints about long queues in the heat.<\/p>\n
Underlining how fierce it was on court, a ball girl collapsed during the match between Zeynep Sonmez and Ekaterina Alexandrova, with both players rushing to help her.<\/p>\n
Sabalenka began her bid for a third Australian Open title in four years with a patchy start before coming good in the second set.<\/p>\n
The world No 1, stunned by Madison Keys in the 2025 final, ultimately had too much power, guile and quality for French wildcard Tiantsoa Rakotomanga Rajaonah.<\/p>\n
But the Belarusian took time to find her touch, making a series of unforced errors before taming the spirited 20-year-old 6-4, 6-1 on Rod Laver Arena.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is always tricky playing someone young, someone you don\u2019t know, and a lefty [left-hander],\u201d said the top seed and title favourite.<\/p>\n
Sabalenka said she had felt added pressure with tennis legends Roger Federer and Rod Laver courtside.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope you guys enjoyed watching me play, I hope you enjoyed it even a little bit,\u201d she said in her on-court interview, addressing the duo.<\/p>\n
Sabalenka faces Chinese qualifier Bai Zhuoxuan next.<\/p>\n
Title rivals Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff play on Monday.<\/p>\n
Also safely through was seventh-seeded Italian Jasmine Paolini as she outclassed Belarusian qualifier Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-1, 6-2.<\/p>\n
Elina Svitolina, the Ukrainian 12th seed, eased past Cristina Bucsa of Spain 6-4, 6-1.<\/p>\n
But seeded fellow Ukrainians Dayana Yastremska and Marta Kostyuk were dumped out early, as was the American great Williams.<\/p>\n
The seven-time major champion was the oldest woman to play in the history of the Australian Open.<\/p>\n
She showed glimpses of what once made her world No 1, but ultimately fell after an epic battle with an opponent more than 20 years her junior.<\/p>\n
Olga Danilovic of Serbia outlasted the veteran 6-7 (5\/7), 6-3, 6-4 over a gruelling two hours 17 minutes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was such a great game, such a great moment. The energy from the crowd was amazing. That lifted me up so much,\u201d Williams said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cBut overall just happy. I\u2019m pleased about the level that I played today,\u201d added Alcaraz, who was playing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":240020,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[141347,12231,10801,806,1135,83629,12230,89690,1743,123,111,139,7805,69,5493,141345,10802,213,141346,10809,165,684,2563,71155,5495,13971,6027,6202,102],"class_list":["post-240019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-45yearold","tag-alcaraz","tag-aryna","tag-as","tag-australian","tag-bids","tag-carlos","tag-fairytale","tag-launched","tag-melbourne","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-no","tag-nz","tag-open","tag-openers","tag-sabalenka","tag-sports","tag-straightsets","tag-sunday","tag-their","tag-there","tag-title","tag-topranked","tag-venus","tag-williams","tag-win","tag-wins","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}