Tennis - Australian Open - Melbourne Park, Melbourne, Australia - January 16, 2024 Kazakhstan's Elena Rybakina in action during her first round match against Czech Republic's Karolina Pliskova REUTERS/Ciro De Luca
MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Third seed Elena Rybakina made a slow start but shifted into top gear when it mattered to down tricky Czech Karolina Pliskova 7-6(6) 6-4 in the opening round of the Australian Open on Tuesday.
Broken to open the contest on Rod Laver Arena as her serve faltered and 6-3 down in the first-set tiebreak, Rybakina showed great fight to get back in the contest and finish it in two sets.
"It was a really tough match for me today, Karolina played really well," Rybakina said.
"But I'm really happy that I managed to win and survive the first set and in the second set it was a little better. I just want to enjoy it here and go as far I can."
The Kazakh admitted to being upset when scheduled on Court 13 for her opener last year when she was reigning Wimbledon champion but, after reaching last year's final, got primetime billing on Melbourne Park's main showcourt on Tuesday.
She came into the Grand Slam in fine form after thrashing Aryna Sabalenka, her vanquisher last year, to win one warm-up tournament in Brisbane before reaching the quarter-finals of another in Adelaide.
It took until the third game for her to even get a point on the board, however, as Pliskova broke the Kazakh to love to open the contest and then held her own serve in similar style.
Former world number one Pliskova has the weapons to hurt any player and for most of the first set was landing two first serves for every one Rybakina managed.
Despite the onslaught, Rybakina got the set back on serve at 2-2 and did enough to stay with the Czech until the tiebreak, where she saved three set points to wrestle back control before going 1-0 up at the first time of asking.
The world number three again pounced to break for 2-1 in the second set and looked like she might finish the contest on Pliskova's final service game only for the Czech to rally to save a match point.
Pliskova came up with a couple of fine winners to make the final game interesting but Rybakina would not be denied and moved on to a second-round contest against Anna Blinkova when the Czech went long with a forehand.
(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney, editing by Christian Radnedge)
