It took Tunisian tennis star, Ons Jabeur, only 63 minutes to secure her passage into the second round of the Australian Open with a 6-3 6-1 win against Yuliia Starodubtseva on Margaret Court Arena.
The Tunisian sensation, who is looking to better her 2020 quarter-final placing at Melbourne Park, was in such dominant form, only broken in the first game of the match before storming to the emphatic victory.
Starodubtseva, who is ranked 150 in the WTP, showed no signs of nerves as she opened up her first match against a top 10 player, and only her second against a player in the top 100, with a break of serve.
However, Jabeur, the world number 6 ranked player, was in her elements as she unleashed her full arsenal of shots as three breaks of her opponent’s serves saw her collect the first set and an early break to put her in total control.
“It is very, very special to come back here again,” Jabeur said after the match.
“I decided to rest a bit before coming to the Australian Open and just play this tournament. But the crowd really helped today and hopefully it will be a much better match for the next round.”
“It’s been a year. Especially last year wasn’t so great here. Coming back here, I was a little bit stressed but seeing the crowd made me less stressed. I saw some guys I’ve known from 2016 cheering for me when I was playing qualifying.”
“They’ve been following me since qualifying; that is really something. Thank you for coming and supporting me for so many years,” she said.