London
8 °C
Manchester
7 °C
Glasgow
-4 °C
Dublin
Belfast
7 °C
Washington
Denver
13 °C
Atlanta
Dallas
-1 °C
Houston Texas
New Orleans
El Paso
Phoenix
Los Angeles
-4 °C
17 °C
-23 °C
-10 °C
12 °C
Paolini races into round two to kickstart Australian Open / Photo: Paul Crock - AFP
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Paolini races into round two to kickstart Australian Open
Jasmine Paolini powered into the Australian Open second round with a straight-sets demolition to kickstart the action in a hot and sunny Melbourne on Sunday.
The seventh-seeded Italian outclassed Belarusian qualifier Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-1, 6-2 on Rod Laver Arena.
Paolini faces Poland's Magdalena Frech or Veronika Erjavec of Slovenia next.
"It was pretty good today, I did not expect that," she said of her emphatic win in 69 minutes.
"Always tough to play first round. I played pretty good. I was solid, focused, so happy.
"Before the match I was a little nervous, to be honest, but then stepped on court and felt good from the first ball."
The 30-year-old broke her opponent's serve immediately and raced into a 3-0 lead in just 10 minutes.
She polished off the first set in 26 minutes and although Sasnovich put up more resistance in the second, Paolini ran out a comfortable winner.
Paolini reached the finals of Wimbledon and the French Open in 2024, but her best result at Melbourne Park is the fourth round in the same year.
P.Sanabria--HdM
