The first Grand Slam of the year kicked off on Sunday in Melbourne, and already seeds were tumbling out of the Australian Open.
“I didn’t expect that! I was solid, I was focused. Before the match, I was a little nervous, to be honest, but then I stepped on the court and felt good from the first ball. I remained focus, because in tennis, you never know. Jasmine Paolini
Marketa Vondrousova, the No 32 seed, did not even strike a ball as the Czech withdrew with a shoulder injury.
Vondrousova, who won her lone Grand Slam title at Wimbledon in 2023, has struggled for form since a quarter-final run at the US Open last year, making several 1st-round exits.
“I’m really sorry that I had to withdraw from the Australian Open due to ongoing shoulder issues,” she wrote on Instagram. “After everything I’ve been dealing with, I need to prioritize my health, even though this decision wasn’t easy. Thank you all for your understanding and support.”
Vondrousova was scheduled to play American Hailey Baptiste in the 1st-round, who, instead, faced her countrywoman, Taylor Townsend, a lucky loser.
Townsend, who lost in the 3rd-round of qualifying to Australia’s Storm Hunter, got a surprise chance to build on her US Open run to the 4th-round, where she knocked out No 5 seed Mirra Andreeva before losing to 2-time Grand Slam champion Barbora Krejčíková in one of the matches of the tournament.
Unfortunately for the 29-year old, who had to get match-ready in a hurry, her opportunity was short-lived, as Baptiste outlasted her, 6-3 6-7(3) 6-3, in an up-and-down contest, and she now moves on to play either Hunter or Jéssica Bouzas Maneiro of Spain in the 2nd-round.
There are a number of absentees at Melbourne Park this year, including Grand Slam finalists and former Top 10 stars Ons Jabeur and Danielle Collins, the former unable to travel due to maternity leave and the latter focusing on her health.
2024 Australian Open runner-up Zheng Qinwen was set to be seeded 25th but is nursing an elbow injury, while Veronika Kudermetova, seeded 31, is also absent due to personal reasons.
Lois Boisson, one of the breakout stars of 2025 after reaching the semi-final of the French Open, was in line to make her Australian Open debut, having risen to No 36 in the WTA Rankings, but the Frenchwoman will not feature as she is still not 100% after struggling with hand and forearm injury in recent months.
As a result, Kaja Juvan, Leolia Jeanjean, Polina Kudermetova and Katie Boulter are some of the WTA players who have been promoted into the main draw.
Hailey Baptiste expected to play Marketa Vondrousova, who pulled out with a shoulder issue, and met lucky loser Taylor Townsend instead, whom she beat in 3 sets at Melbourne Park on Day 1
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In Sunday’s Day 1 action, the highest seed to fall was Ekaterina Alexandrova, the Russian World No 11, at the hands of Turkish qualifier Zeynep Sönmez.
The 23-year old Turk raced through qualifying without dropping a set, and her 7-5 4-6 6-4 upset marked her first main-draw win at the Australian Open, and the second over a Top 20 opponent of her career.
The defining moment came with Sönmez trailing 1-3 in the deciding set, when she fired a forehand before feathering a soft drop-shot, which Alexandrova tracked down and replied to with a perfectly-angled forehand of her own, only for the Turk to sprint metres beyond the sideline to retrieve it, igniting the crowd and swinging the momentum of the match.
Sönmez, who had lost to Alexandrova in the 3rd-round of Wimbledon last year, later left 1573 Arena to a standing ovation, draped in a Turkish flag.
She faces the winner of Monday’s contest between Hungary’s Anna Bondar and Elizabeth Mandlik from the USA.
Elsa Jacquemot upset the No 20 seed, Marta Kostyuk, in 3 tiebreak sets, the first match in the Open Era to go the full distance
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Two Ukrainians, Marta Kostyuk, the No 20 seed, and Dayana Yastremska, the 26th seed, were both casualties of the opening round.
Kostyuk’s demise came at the hands of France’s Elsa Jacquemot, who made history with the first 3-tiebreak women’s singles match at the Australian Open in the Open Era.
Playing in her first main draw at the tournament, Jacquemot triumphed, 6-7(4) 7-6(4) 7-6[10-7], in 30-degree heat after 3 hours and 31 minutes
Things looked dire for the 22-year-old Frenchwoman in the second set, when Kostyuk was serving for the match, but Jacquemot saved the match point with a winner, her ferocious forehand coming to her rescue, and she regrouped to force a tiebreak, rallying again after falling behind by a mini-break.
There was more drama late in the decider, when Kostyuk rolled her ankle and required a medical time-out to have it taped.
“It was tough, because you feel, like, it’s the end of the match,” Jacquemot said. “I tried to stay as calm as possible, don’t think too much about it. I’m really happy I stayed focused in the match.”
The win marked Jacquemot’s first over a Top 20 opponent, and was all the more impressive given Kostyuk’s recent form, which included wins over Amanda Anisimova, Mirra Andreeva and Jessica Pegula before a loss to Aryna Sabalenka in the final of the Brisbane International.
The fluidity and consistency the Ukrainian displayed 2 weeks ago was lacking against Jacquemot, though, as Kostyuk fired 67 winners that were outweighed by her 68 unforced errors.
Jacquemot, the 2020 Roland Garros junior champion who cracked the Top 100 last year, lured Kostyuk into over-pressing with superb defence, but also sprinkled in moments of well-timed aggression.
She next will face Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan, who overcame Beatriz Haddad Maia, and a raucous Brazilian crowd, 3-6 7-5 6-3, earlier in the day, coming from a set and a break down in 2 hours and 53 minutes.
“She was my coach’s player before [me],” Jacquemot said of her Putintseva. “I’ll have a couple of days to prepare … I really need to recover.”
Scheduled on Court 6 adjacent to the rambunctious Courtside Bar, Putintseva’s dynamic with the crowd was a spicy one throughout, but the Russian-born Kazakh had the last laugh, approaching the net with a shimmy of her hips after sealing the win, and then delivering a florid bow to the audience, with a theatrical twirl thrown in for good measure.
In a significant opening-night upset, Romania’s Elena-Gabriela Ruse eliminated 26th-seeded Yastremska with a clinical, 6-4 7-5, win, the result marking a bitter departure for the Ukrainian, who just 2 years ago staged a fairytale run to the semi-finals in Melbourne, and now endured an exit in the 1st-round.
Currently ranked 85, Ruse demonstrated remarkable composure in the second set after letting a commanding 5-1 lead slip away.
Yastremska showcased her trademark grit by winning 4 consecutive games to level the set at 5-5, but the Romanian recalibrated to break again, and served out the match.
Ruse advances to round 2, where she awaits the winner of the match between Australian veteran Ajla Tomljanovic and Ukrainian qualifier Yuliia Starodubtseva.
Jasmine Paolini, the 7th seed, comfortably defeated Aliaksandra Sasnovich with the loss of just 3 games to open her AO campaign on Sunday
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Opening round matches at Grand Slams, especially at the Australian Open, can often prove tricky, but it wasn’t an issue for Jasmine Paolini, the World No 7 from Italy, who blazed past Belarusian qualifier Aliaksandra Sasnovich, 6-1 6-2, in just over an hour.
The Italian swamped Sasnovich with aggressive groundstrokes, darting across the court, and dictating play from the baseline, and the Belarusian positively wilted under the relentless pace, struggling to stay in the rallies that barely gave her a moment to breathe.
“I didn’t expect that,” Paolini beamed after her match. “I was solid, I was focused. Before the match, I was a little nervous, to be honest, but then I stepped on the court and felt good from the first ball. I remained focus, because in tennis, you never know.”
For Paolini, the emphatic win began long before the first serve, with a deliberate shift in mindset.
“I said to myself, ‘you haven’t smiled since you got up’. Smile a little bit because, if not, you step on the court and you play bad. For me, it’s important to enjoy my tennis, enjoy being on court, so sometimes I force myself to smile more,” she explained, before signing off with ‘I will enjoy my Sunday now!’ on the television camera.
Paolini faces the winner of Monday’s match between Poland’s Magdalena Frech and Veronika Erjavec from Slovenia in round 2.
Elina Svitolina, the No 12 seed, kept her unbeaten run alive with a straight sets win against Cristina Bucsa on Day 1 at Melbourne Park
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Elena Svitolina’s 13th Australian Open campaign also got off to a smooth start on Sunday, the Ukrainian notching up a win to remain unbeaten in 2026.
After dropping an early break to Cristina Bucsca, the 12th seed dazzled the crowd with a cross-court backhand that stretched past the Spaniard’s reach, and quickly broke back.
From there, she barely put a foot wrong, closing out a 6-4 6-1 victory to extend her streak to 12 consecutive 1st-round AO wins.
Svitolina claimed the WTA 250 title in Auckland last week, and joked she was unbeaten because she ‘trained with my husband!’
“We enjoy it a lot, supporting each other,” she said. “Having somebody at every tournament and having someone who really understands and supports you every step of the way.
The Ukrainian will face the winner of Monday’s meeting between Polish qualifier Linda Klimovicova and the British No 3, Fran Jones, in the 2nd-round.
Also through to round 2 is Maria Sakkari, who is making a come-back after an indifferent season last year that saw her ranking plummet.
Currently the World No 53, even Sakkari is finding her progress unreal as she put away Leolia Jeanjean from France, 6-4 6-2.
The Greek was up one set and 4-2 in the second when Jeanjean served to begin the 7th game, and Sakkari produced the shot-of-the-day.
“Top one by far,” Sakkari said to reporters on where the shot ranks in her career. “It’s not everyday you hit this kind of a shot.”
At first, the serve’s curling trajectory looked to be about to beat Sakkari but, outstretched, she got enough power behind the hit to get it over.
The location of the strike was several feet away from the baseline and Sakkari’s pass ultimately had her jaw to the floor and racket above her head.
“I didn’t know what to think because I never thought I could hit that kind of a shot,” Sakkari said. “It was just so natural, I just hit, and I was praying it was gonna go in. It was a one-off thing and I’m super excited because I’m sure it’s going to be up there with one of the best shots.”
Sakkari cruised to a straight-sets win and advances to the 2nd-round, where she will face either Croatia’s Donna Vekic or Mirra Andreeva, the No 8 seed from Russian, whom she has never played before.