TRANSCRIPT
The sound of a record-breaking crowd packed into Melbourne Park on Sunday, more than 100,000 fans turning up to cheer on tennis greats on day one of the 2026 Australian Open.
It was an exhilarating opener to the two-week tournament- with two world number ones, Carlos Alcaraz and Aryna Sabalenka progressing to the second round with straight-sets victories.
Belorussian star Sabalenka had a slow start, losing consecutive points to French wildcard Tiantsoa Rakotomanga Rajaonah in the first set.
But she quickly turned the match around, her 6-4, 6-1 win moving her a step closer to her third Australian Open title in four years.
She says it was her well-practiced serve-and-volley approach which secured her the match.
"I'm super happy to be able to do it on the match. You know, on the practice is one thing, but to be able to be kind of, like, fearless and go there at the match is something else. I'm really proud I'm able to show this tennis."
But she says staving off nerves was made harder by the front-row presence of Swiss legend Roger Federer and Australian hero Rod Laver.
"The whole match I was just telling myself, do not look there, please, do not look. But yeah, it's incredible. I would never thought that Roger Federer and Rod Laver are going to be sitting first row watching my match. Yeah, that's unbelievable."
Men's world number one Alcaraz is a step closer to his first Melbourne title, continuing his campaign to become the youngest player to ever complete a career Grand Slam - a win at all four major tennis tournaments.
In the final match of the day on Rod Laver Arena, the 22-year-old Spaniard secured his win against Australian Adam Walton 6-3, 7-6, 6-2.
He says it's been disappointing the last two years not moving past the quarterfinals, something he's determined to change.
"But I just really want to perform better than I did previous years. So I just feeling this year probably it is one of those years that I will be able to or I will have the chance to go further."
There were four Australians on the court on day one, but only one was victorious, with Australian Wildcard Talia Gibson beating world number 62 Anna Blinkova 6-1, 6-3.
The 21-year-old will play either Czech two-time grand slam winner Barbora Krejčíková, or 23rd seed Diana Shnaider in the second round.
But Tennis great Venus Williams won't be progressing to the next stage, after losing to 24-year-old Serbian Olga Danilovic [[dah-nee-lov-itch]] 6-7, 6-3, 6-4.
At the age of 45, Williams received a wildcard to become the oldest woman ever to compete in the singles main draw, returning to the tournament after five years.
The veteran player says her tennis is still improving with every match.
"I'm really proud of my effort today, I'm playing better with each match and getting to the places I want to get to. And right now I'm going to have to just keep going forward and working on myself, you know, I'm still learning. It's kind of weird. But it's super exciting to have played that well, and get myself into that position, and get very close."
Nine Australians are are set to play on day two at Melbourne Park, with home favourite Alex de Minaur taking on American Mackenzie McDonald second on centre court.
Australian Ajla Tomljanovic, who was forced to drop out of the Adelaide International last week with a shoulder injury, will be up against Ukrainian Yuliia Starodubtseva this evening on John Cain Arena.
Alexei Popyrin will then take to the same court to play France's Alexandre Muller.
