Sabalenka beats wildcard in front of Federer & Laver
World number one Aryna Sabalenka overcame the "pressure" of being watched by tennis legends Roger Federer and Rod Laver to begin her Australian Open campaign with victory.
An error-prone Sabalenka beat French wildcard Tiantsoa Rakotomanga Rajaonah 6-4 6-1 on Rod Laver Arena.
Six-time men's champion Federer and three-time winner Laver had front row seats during the first-round match, with Sabalenka joking she tried not to look at them.
Sabalenka, who has won the Melbourne title twice, later took a selfie with the pair.
"I wanted to show great tennis so you guys enjoy watching me play. What a privilege – I really hope you guys enjoyed it just a little bit," Belarus' Sabalenka said.
"It was a lot of pressure. I was walking [around] thinking 'don't look there, don't look there'."
Sabalenka boasts an impressive record in Australia, dropping just one set en route to consecutive titles in 2023 and 2024, and has lost just one of her past 22 matches at the tournament – a surprise three-set defeat by American Madison Keys in last year's final.
Her good form is not restricted to Melbourne's blue courts either – five of her 22 career singles titles have come on Australian soil, including tuning up for this year's major with victory at the Brisbane International.
However, Sabalenka did not have it all her own way against world number 118 Rakotomanga Rajaonah.
In an uncharacteristically messy first set, Sabalenka had her serve broken in the opening game of the match and although she immediately broke back, saw 16 winners cancelled out by 13 unforced errors.
After saving a break point for 4-4, the match became increasingly one-sided, with Sabalenka reeling off five games in a row to take control.
"I didn't start my best. She showed up on fire and she was playing great," said Sabalenka, who is bidding to reach a fourth consecutive Australian Open final.
Sabalenka will face either Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova or Bai Zhuoxuan in the second round, with Britain's Emma Raducanu a possible third-round opponent.
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Elsewhere, Italian seventh seed Jasmine Paolini dropped just three games as she breezed past Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-1 6-2.
Three-time quarter-finalist Elina Svitolina also advanced comfortably, defeating Spain's Cristina Bucsa in straight sets.
Otherwise it was a tricky day for the seeds, with Russian 11th seed Ekaterina Alexadrova the highest-ranked player to fall. She lost to Turkey's Zeynep Sonmez 7-5 4-6 6-4.
Ukrainian 20th seed Marta Kostyuk fell in three sets to France's Elsa Jacquemot in a match which featured three tie-breaks, while Elena-Gabriela Ruse downed Kostyuk's compatriot Dayana Yastremska – the 26th seed – 6-4 7-5.
