Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka made flying starts to their Australian Open campaigns.
The city’s mixed feelings about the tournament were evident in sparse crowds at Melbourne Park but that did not bother seven-time champion Williams or title favourite Osaka.
Wearing a striking one-legged catsuit that she later revealed was inspired by 1980s athletics star Florence Griffith Joyner, Williams brushed aside Germany’s Laura Siegemund 6-1 6-1 in just 56 minutes.
The 39-year-old made a nervous start to her 100th match at the tournament, dropping serve in the opening game, but won the next 10 to ease through to a second-round clash with Nina Stojanovic.
Williams had pulled out of last week’s warm-up event with a shoulder problem, and said: “I was happy just to get through it. I wasn’t sure how my serve would be after a little bit of that shoulder, but it’s feeling good, I’m feeling good.”
She rushed off court to watch another evergreen athlete, Tom Brady, win his seventh Super Bowl with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at the age of 43.
“I just was watching as much as I could to see,” she said. “My only word is it’s unbelievable. I kept saying, ‘This is unbelievable, this is unreal’.”
It was a successful day for the Williams family, with Venus claiming her first victory at a grand slam since 2019.
The 40-year-old, who is playing in a record 88th grand slam main draw, defeated 35-year-old Kirsten Flipkens 7-5 6-2.
Like Williams, Osaka withdrew from last week’s warm-up event with a shoulder problem but she made it clear it was precautionary and was in fine fettle in a 6-1 6-2 victory over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
Pavlyuchenkova had reached the quarter-finals in three of the past four years but Osaka was simply far too sharp, winning the opening four games and barely putting a foot wrong.
On what appeared to be a tough draw, Osaka said: “It’s always really hard to play someone that good in the first round. I feel like it might have also helped in a way because I calmed my nerves because I felt like I couldn’t afford to be that nervous.”
The victory extended Osaka’s winning run, stretching back a year, to 15 matches, and she cited last year’s defeat by Coco Gauff in Melbourne as a turning point in her mental approach.