On January 13th, Beijing time, the second day of the first round of the new season's Australian Open women's singles saw the appearance of top contenders like Gauff and Swiatek, as well as multiple Grand Slam champions including Azarenka, Kenin, and Ostapenko.
In a match between two Grand Slam champions, third-seeded Gauff easily defeated former champion Kenin with a score of 6-3, 6-3, achieving an eight-match winning streak across seasons. Following this, second-seeded Swiatek eliminated Siniakova with a score of 6-3, 6-4, advancing to the next round and improving her career Grand Slam first-round record to 23 wins and 1 loss. Thus, the top three seeds in the Australian Open women's singles all advanced with a 2-0 scoreline, with defending champion Sabalenka also eliminating Stephens with a 2-0 victory.
However, there were several upsets on this match day. Former champion and 21st seed Azarenka performed poorly, losing 2-6, 6-7(2) to Bronzetti, suffering a first-round exit at the Australian Open for the first time in four years. For this 35-year-old veteran, increased age and declining form have left her with little competitiveness on the Grand Slam stage.
Additionally, 16th seed Ostapenko also underperformed, losing the first set 3-6 and then being overturned by Bencic 8-6 in the tiebreak after leveling the second set at 6-6, resulting in a first-round exit with a total score of 0-2.
In other matches, seventh-seeded Pegula swept past local wildcard youngster Jont with a 2-0 score, 12th seeded Schneider eliminated Kokhareto with a 2-0 score, 25th seeded Samsonova defeated Laksimova with a 2-0 score, 28th seeded Svitolina defeated Kostia with a 2-0 score, 23rd seeded Fletcher defeated Kudermetova with a 2-0 score, Slamkova reversed Volynets with a 2-1 score, Gibson reversed Senmez with a 2-1 score, Tomljanovic defeated Krug with a 2-1 score, Uchimura Moe reversed Linette with a 2-1 score, and Siegemund reversed Baptiste with a 2-1 score.
Among them, Siegemund will face fifth-seeded Zheng Qinwen in the second round, marking their first encounter.
The only Chinese player to appear in today's women's singles competition was Yuan Yue, facing 27th seed Pavlyuchenkova.
In the first set, Yuan Yue was broken at the end of the set, losing 4-6. In the second set, Yuan Yue leveled the score at 6-4, dragging it into the deciding set. In the final set, Yuan Yue could break serve but would also be broken back, ultimately losing 3-6 to Pavlyuchenkova, failing to advance beyond the first round for the third consecutive year.
The previous day's qualifiers included Sabalenka, Bossa, Maria, Tauson, Blinkova, Mira Andreeva, Vikic, Zheng Qinwen, Bukhsa, Fernandez, Ramos, and Badosa.
Following Krejcikova and Wozniacki, another player withdrew from the Australian Open, 2023 Wimbledon champion Vondrousova, who announced her withdrawal due to injury, with lucky loser Dart replacing her in the competition.