Melbourne: World No. 3 Naomi Osaka beat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova for her first win at the 2021 Australian Open. Meanwhile, Serena and Venus Williams also advanced to Round 2 with straight-sets victories in their opening matches.
Third seed Naomi Osaka, the 2019 women’s champion, won through after easily defeating Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-1, 6-2 in the opening match on Melbourne Park’s centre court.
Osaka drew a potential tough opening opponent in Pavlyuchenkova, a Russian ranked 39th who reached the quarterfinals in Melbourne three of the past four years. But Osaka breezed through the first set in 21 minutes and barely slowed after that.
Serena Williams has joined her older sister Venus in the second round of the Australian Open, as the first tennis major of the season got underway at Melbourne Park. Venus was the first of the siblings to advance when she beat Belgium’s Kirsten Flipkens 7-5, 6-2 on Margaret Court Arena. Serena, who is chasing her 24th major singles title, progressed from the first round a little later in the afternoon on Rod Laver Arena via a convincing 6-1, 6-1 triumph over unseeded Laura Siegemund in just 56 minutes.
