Sunday, January 18, 2026

AO26 - Down and Out and Up and Down













=AO NOTES=
...the opening hours of Day 1 at each major are always an interesting time, as players vie to become the "first" to be a part of any number of things -- as in the First Victory, as well as the First Loss and the First Seed Out -- in each tournament, accomplishments and/or disappointments that, for the most part, will go from headline-making news to being quickly forgotten within, well, by the start of Day 2 (if not earlier).

The women who (temporarily) stepped into the spotlight on Sunday? Talia Gibson, Anna Blinkova and Dayana Yastremska. Interestingly enough, all three woman have made headlines *later* in the tournament at recent Australian Opens.

Wild card Gibson was one of three Aussie women to reach the 2nd Round last year (all tying as Last Aussie Standing), and today she played her way right back there with a 6-1/6-3 victory over Anna Blinkova, giving her this AO's First Victory in the 1st Round.



Two years ago, Blinkova played and won the match of the tournament (and maybe the year) in the 2nd Round in Melbourne, defeating Elena Rybakina a record 42-point TB (22-20). In 2024, she lost in the next round, and her defeat today drops her to 1-3 in AO matches since that win over the Kazakh.

Not long afterward, #26 Yastremska became the First Seed Out, two years after she was a surprise AO semifinalist in her career-best slam run.

The Ukrainian lost in straights to Romanian Gabriela Ruse, but things were a bit more complicated that the final 6-4/7-5 scoreline might suggest for, you see, Ruse had led the match 6-4/4-0, then 5-1. She held a MP on serve at 5-2, then three more on return in the following game. She served again for the win at 5-4, only to be broken as Yastremska knotted the set at 5-5, calling up memories of her win after being MP down to Anastasia Zakharova at last year's Wimbledon.

But her comeback wouldn't be rewarded, as the Ukrainian immediately dropped serve and, on her third try to serve out the "W," Ruse finally did it, putting away MP #5 to reach the 2nd Round in Melbourne for a third straight MD appearance (w/ 2022 and '25). Ruse is now 4-0 vs. Yastremska in their career head-to-head.



...in the very next match up on ANZ Arena (aka Court 3) following Yastremska's loss, the Ukrainian seeds' poor day (aside from #12 Elina Svitolina's quick win) continued with #20 Marta Kostyuk following her countrywoman out the door in a crazy 3:31, three-TB affair vs. Elsa Jacquemot in which the two combined to save 26 of 32 break points (17 of 20 by the French woman alone).



Kostyuk came into Melbourne off a sometimes-brilliant opening week in Brisbane in which she defeated three Top 10 players en route to the final (a TB-free two-set loss to Aryna Sabalenka), but whether pre-slam results mean anything once the big event begins is often a coin flip, and Kostyuk was on the wrong side of a momentum-shifting game-of-chance match today.

The Ukrainian had claimed the opening set after trailing 3-1, then 3-1 in the breaker, but couldn't serve out the win in the 2nd set. Kostyuk served at 5-3 and held a MP at 6-5, only to lose a 7-4 TB as Jacquemot swept the final four points.

In the 3rd, while Kostyuk went about quickly holding her serve, winning at love, 15, 15, love and love up until the score was knotted at 5-5, over those same first ten games Jacquemot had had to save two BP in game 1, then four in game 9. In game 11, the Pastry held again in a four-deuce game in which she saved another BP for a 6-5 lead. In game 12, Kostyuk saved a MP, as well, but turned her ankle during the game before eventually holding to force a deciding MTB (making this the second three-breaker MD tour match in the season's first two weeks and one day, after there'd been none since 2023, and the first in a women's match at the AO in the Open era).



With Kostyuk just back after having had her MTO in the previous game, Jacquemot raced to a 5-1 lead in the TB, and led 7-4 before Kostyuk managed to tie things again at 7-all. But the French woman swept the final three points to win 6-7(4)/7-6(4)/7-6(10-7), picking up her maiden Top 20 victory.



...#11 Ekaterina Alexandrova was the highest seed to fall, going out at the hands of Turkish qualifier Zeynep Sonmez.



Sonmez rallied from 5-2 down to claim a 7-5 1st set, then saw Alexandrova erase an early 3-1 deficit in the 2nd to force a decider. In the 3rd, Sonemz once more had to put on a comeback surge (from 3-0 back), and at 5-4 finally served out the win on her fourth MP of game 10 to prevail 7-5/4-6/6-4.

This AO is the third consecutive major at which Sonmez has posted at least one MD victory (after 2r and 3r results at the last year's WI/US), and she's the first woman from Turkey to reach the AO singles 2nd Round.

...overnight, #1 seed Aryna Sabalenka opened night session play on Laver with a 6-4/6-1 win over game wild card Tiantsoa Sarah Rakotomanga Rajaonah, improving to 39-2 in her last 41 matches in Australia.



Elsewhere, Chinese qualifier Bai Zhuoxuan made Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova the third Hordette to exit on Day 1 (a full third of the entire reduced contingent in this year's AO MD), winning a 6-4/2-6/7-6(12-10) contest in which the two traded off MP chances in the deciding MTB. Bai had the first and last, finally converting to win 12-10.

The win is Bai's first in the MD of a major since her 2023 debut at Wimbledon. She missed nearly the entire first half of the '25 season, and ultimately appeared in just one tour-level event (a Jiujiang QF, along w/ three challengers) before opening her '26 campaign with an AO qualifying run as the world #697.



...in the Cain Arena closer, 45-year old wild card Venus Williams made her first AO appearance since 2021. Once again, she put up a good showing, but once again she exited in the end. As has often been the scenario in this latter stage of Williams' career, and the key for most of her opponents when it comes to avoiding a loss to the legend, it came down to getting the match to a 3rd set.

Olga Danilovic prevailed 6-7(5)/6-3/6-4 in this one, handing Williams her sixth straight loss (tying a career long streak with a '21 stretch). Venus is 1-9 in her last ten three-setters, and 2-17 in such matches since 2019.



...meanwhile, something to watch for out of Florida on Sunday is Bianca Andreescu's result in a $35K challenger final in Bradenton vs. Vivian Wolff. If the Canadian can win it'll represent her first singles title on *any* level since she won the U.S. Open in 2019.

Imagine telling your September 2019 self that you'd be saying *that* about Andreescu in January 2026. Well, I mean, not long after that it might have tracked with what happened to her, but *in that moment* it would have been difficult to fathom.

She didn't just win in New York that year, remember, she also won Indian Wells and Toronto.







...MARIA THE FREAKIN' SAKKARI on Day 1:




...AS THE VONDROUSOVA TURNS:




...IYKYK on Day 1:




...Hmmm, so incomprehensible on-air choices, unlistenable commentary, embarrassing on-set hosting and now... :



And you *know* that they'll purposely *not* show a very big match over the air on ESPN/ESPN2 -- nor switch back and forth between Laver and MCA at some point, or give *zero* updates about what's happening in the "other" simultaneously played match -- in an attempt to "force" viewers to buy the extra "Unlimited" tier above ESPN+ in order to see what's happening on the other show court.

I guess after TNT showed at RG last year that a U.S. network could actually cover a major without offending and/or insulting the intelligence of its audience, ESPN/Disney just decided to drop the pretense and officially complete the heel turn in broad daylight.


...EVERYBODY LOVES ZEYNEP ON DAY 1:




...Hmmm, ummm...IMITATION IS THE MOST SINCERE FORM OF FLATTERY (AI excluded)?:




...THE STYLE OF THE NEW "IndyCar on Fox" ADS (like this one featuring Josef Newgarden) WOULD WORK SO WELL FOR THE WTA (not that anyone with any decision-making power will ever recognize that):



For a long time, IndyCar was an underappreciated sports entity, wrongly overwhelmed in the U.S. by, I think, the far less interesting/exciting NASCAR series, and was in need of someone to do something -- anything -- that would present it in its best light and try to make it stand out. Sound familiar?

Here's an ad featuring Alex Palou from *last* year's campaign. Someone knows what they're doing over there.
























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*RECENT AO "FIRST VICTORY" HONORS*
2020 Paula Badosa, ESP (def. Larsson)
2021 Naomi Osaka, JPN (def. Pavlyuchenkova)
2022 Camila Giorgi, ITA (def. Potapova)
2023 Jessie Pegula, USA (def. Cristian)
2024 Kamilla Rakhimova, RUS (def. Bektas)
2025 Mirra Andreeva, RUS (def. Bouzkova)
2026 Talia Gibson, AUS (def. Blinkova)

*RECENT AO "FIRST SEED OUT"*
2015 #32 Belinda Bencic, SUI (lost to Goerges)
2016 #17 Sara Errani, ITA (lost to Gasparyan)
2017 #4 Simona Halep, ROU (lost to Rogers)
2018 #13 Sloane Stephens, USA (lost to Sh.Zhang)
2019 #14 Julia Goerges, GER (lost to Collins)
2020 #32 Barbora Strycova, CZE (lost to Cirstea)
2021 #23 Angelique Kerber, GER (lost to Pera)
2022 #18 Coco Cauff, USA (lost to Q.Wang)
2023 #28 Amanda Anisimova, USA (lost to Kostyuk)
2024 #13 Liudmila Samsonova, RUS (lost to Anisimova)
2025 #29 Linda Noskova, CZE (lost to Tauson)
2026 #26 Dayana Yastremska, UKR (lost to Ruse)




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I've said this before and I'll say it again. It would only take a tiny handful of Republican Congress members or senators to stop the slide of America toward authoritarian fascism, but nope. They're all in.

— Peter Gleick (@petergleick.bsky.social) January 4, 2026 at 9:59 PM

Four GOP Senators. At most four Repubs in the House. Together they could stop nearly all the mad-king's rampages. They would be known to history as Profiles in Courage. They might/would lose the next election. But people have sacrificed a lot more, for a lot less.

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— James Fallows (@jfallows.bsky.social) January 17, 2026 at 3:41 PM


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Wow, who could have *ever* seen this coming?


The South Carolina measles outbreak is growing at an astounding speed More than 500 people are in a 21-day quarantine and about 200 are "actively infected." The largest outbreak currently in the U.S. has spread to at least three other states

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— Phil Lewis (@phillewis.bsky.social) January 17, 2026 at 10:33 AM


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TOP QUALIFIER: Guiomar Maristany/ESP
TOP EARLY-ROUND (1r-2r): x
TOP MIDDLE-ROUND (3r-QF): x
TOP LATE ROUND (SF-F): x
TOP QUALIFYING MATCH: Q2 - Guiomar Maristany/ESP def. Tatiana Prozorova/RUS 6-2/2-6/7-6(10-7) - saved four MP (at 6-5 in the 3rd), reached maiden slam MD
TOP EARLY-RD. MATCH (1r-2r): x
TOP MIDDLE-RD. MATCH (3r-QF): x
TOP LATE RD. MATCH (SF-F/WC/Doub.): x
=============================
FIRST VICTORY: (WC) Talia Gibson/AUS (def. Anna Blinkova/RUS)
FIRST SEED OUT: #26 Dayana Yastremska, UKR (1r- lost to Gabriela Ruse/ROU)
FIRST SLAM MD WINS: Day 1 wins: none
PROTECTED RANKING BEST: Day 1 wins: none
LUCKY LOSER BEST: Day 1 wins: none
UPSET QUEENS: x
REVELATION LADIES: x
NATION OF POOR SOULS: x
LAST QUALIFIER STANDING: Day 1 wins: Bai/CHN, Sonmez/TUR
LAST WILD CARD STANDING: Day 1 wins: Gibson/AUS
LAST AUSSIE STANDING: Day 1 wins (of 10 MD): Gibson
Ms. OPPORTUNITY: x
IT (?): x
COMEBACK PLAYER: x
CRASH & BURN: Nominees: first two seeds out are UKR (Yastremska/Kostyuk) in back-to-back ANZ Arena matches on Day 1
ZOMBIE QUEEN OF MELBOURNE: Nominee: Jacquemot (saved MP in 1r vs. Kostyuk in 3-TB, 3:31 match)
KIMIKO VETERAN CUP: x
LADY OF THE EVENING: x
AUSTRALIAN LANGUAGE ARTS AWARD: Nominee: Ash Barty's "Don't Call it a Comeback" return in AO opening ceremonies
DOUBLES STAR: x
JUNIOR BREAKOUT: x





All for now. More soon.

posted by Todd.Spiker @ 1:45 PM 

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