Defending Champion Sabalenka Starts Australian Open Campaign With Win Over Stephens
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Aryna Sabalenka entered the 2025 Australian Open as a defending champion once again, and she started by playing as a defending champion as well.
Last year, Sabalenka experienced her first title defense at a Grand Slam tournament in Melbourne, and she was very successful, adding her second consecutive title at the "Happy Slam."
This year, she will be attempting to complete a very rare three-peat, won only by a few players. The draw was not the nicest to her, as she drew fellow US Open champion Sloane Stephens.
Although the American has seen better days, she recently said that she doesn't want to think about retiring, and she was ready to challenge the WTA World No. 1 in this match.
Sabalenka started with a perfect display in the opening game. She won it to love, with the longest rally lasting only five shots, showing her aggressive approach. She also hit a 183 km/h (114 mph) serve, showing that she came to play.
Stephens couldn't respond to that, as she sent her backhand into the net when facing a break point in the second game of the match, falling behind 0-2 after just five minutes of play.
Sabalenka then produced another relatively easy hold to lead already 3-0. In the fourth game, players fought for every ball as either refused to give up after it got to deuce.
Stephens saved the first break point when a winner-looking ball from her opponent's racket sailed just wide, but the American player then made two forehand errors, and even the net cord helped the WTA World No. 1 player to lead already 4-0.
It looked like she would easily sail to a win after having a two-break advantage, but that was very far from the truth. Stephens put the top seed under pressure in the following game, managing to extend the rallies.
She hit two winners, one of them after a 14-shot rally, and with two unforced errors from her opponent, Stephens was able to win her first game of the match and recover one of the breaks lost to make it 1-4.
She then held her serve in a game of errors, in which neither of the players managed to hit a winner, and after that, she stunningly broke Sabalenka's serve again to make it 3-4. The Belarusian also helped her with a double fault.
The following game was the longest game of the match, and it lasted eight minutes, with both players aware that the first set, and maybe also the match was on the line.
Stephens had one game point to make it 4-4, but Sabalenka took control of the rally and built the point to get to an easy forehand volley, which she sent into the wide-open court.
She then forced her opponent to make errors, after which the Belarusian player broke again to lead 5-3. She then held her serve after a few more errors from Stephens to win the first set 6-3.
The American player then won the opening game of the second set, but from there, Sabalenka controlled the proceedings. She won her service games and then broke Stephens thanks to a beautiful forehand drop shot, which the American player couldn't chase down.
Sabalenka then held her serve easily and added another break to lead already 5-1. Although her opponent then won one service game, the defending champion had no issues serving out the match to win 6-3, 6-2, in an hour and 11 minutes of play.
In the second round of the tournament, the top seed will take on Jessica Bouzas Maneiro, who bested Sonay Kartal 6-1, 7-6(5), in the first round of the tournament.
