She waved regally to the crowd and the four-time Grand Slam champion then folded up the umbrella and neatly put the hat and veil to the side.<\/p>\n
Osaka, a two-time former champion, went on to win 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 and said of her eye-catching outfit: \u201cIt is modelled after jellyfish, it\u2019s really beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Japan’s Naomi Osaka carries her hat as she walks off court after defeating Croatia’s Antonia Ruzic in their women’s singles match on day three of the Australian Open. Photo \/ AFP<\/p>\n
Sinner advances, Monfils bows out<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Jannik Sinner barely broke sweat in launching his quest to win a third Australian Open in a row, while popular Frenchman Gael Monfils bid farewell to Melbourne Park with an epic defeat and thanks for \u201can amazing ride\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Italian Sinner strolled into round two when French opponent Hugo Gaston retired on Rod Laver Arena with the second seed in full control at 6-2, 6-1.<\/p>\n
Gaston, who had an abdominal injury, slumped to his chair and shook his head as his tournament ended in distress.<\/p>\n
Two-time reigning champion Sinner said it was not how he wanted to win, but was pleased with his night\u2019s work.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew from the beginning that I had to play a very high level and was trying to be as aggressive as possible, which I\u2019ve done,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Should he win three titles in a row in Melbourne, Sinner would join Novak Djokovic as the only men in the Open era to do so.<\/p>\n
Great entertainer Monfils was bundled out in the first round in a brave goodbye to a tournament he has lit up so many times down the years.<\/p>\n
The 39-year-old, one of the most colourful and popular players in men\u2019s tennis, battled all the way but Australian qualifier Dane Sweeny prevailed 6-7 (3\/7), 7-5, 6-4, 7-5 in an epic lasting nearly four hours.<\/p>\n
There was an on-court presentation and standing ovation afterwards for Monfils, who said: \u201cSomehow it is the finish line, but thank you so much for an amazing ride.\u201d<\/p>\n
Monfils, who has won 13 ATP titles in a career stretching back to 2004, said in October that this year would be his last in tennis.<\/p>\n
Italian fifth seed Lorenzo Musetti moved on when his Belgian opponent Raphael Collignon retired in the fourth set.<\/p>\n
Ben Shelton, the eighth seed and a semi-finalist last year, saw off France\u2019s Ugo Humbert, 6-3, 7-6 (7\/2), 7-6 (7\/5).<\/p>\n
But Brazilian 19-year-old Joao Fonseca, touted on the eve of the tournament by Roger Federer as a star of the future, was dumped out by Eliot Spizzirri at the first hurdle.<\/p>\n
The American defied the crowd of chanting Brazilian fans to win 6-4, 2-6, 6-1, 6-2.<\/p>\n
In the first match of the day, Madison Keys admitted being \u201cvery nervous\u201d as she launched her title defence with a shaky win.<\/p>\n
Keys lost the first four games before rallying to beat Ukraine\u2019s Oleksandra Oliynykova 7-6 (8\/6), 6-1.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been thinking about this moment for basically a year,\u201d the American said of walking out on centre court again.<\/p>\n
Keys stunned Aryna Sabalenka 12 months ago in a three-set classic to win her first major crown at the age of 29, but she failed to push on, winning no more titles in 2025.<\/p>\n
She threatened to implode against the Ukrainian ranked 92, before finding her feet to pull away in the second set.<\/p>\n
Janice Tjen clocked another milestone in her rapid rise as she became the first Indonesian to win a match at the Australian Open in 28 years.<\/p>\n
Unseeded Tjen stunned Canadian 22nd seed Leylah Fernandez 6-2, 7-6 (7\/1).<\/p>\n
Tjen, who this time last year was ranked 413 but is now the world number 59, is the first Indonesian to win a match at the major since Yayuk Basuki in 1998.<\/p>\n
Also through was Elena Rybakina, the fifth seed from Kazakhstan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"She waved regally to the crowd and the four-time Grand Slam champion then folded up the umbrella and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243102,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[806,1975,1135,32131,1438,12232,3171,111,139,69,5493,9596,1305,12233,213,9343,17892,1346,142626,1529,210,102],"class_list":["post-243101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-as","tag-at","tag-australian","tag-bold","tag-fashion","tag-jannik","tag-naomi","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-open","tag-osaka","tag-show","tag-sinner","tag-sports","tag-statement","tag-steals","tag-stole","tag-strolls","tag-three","tag-through","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243101","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=243101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}