Melbourne: Sure, Sofia Kenin struggled in her first match as a defending champion at a Grand Slam tournament.
The 22-year-old from Florida struggled with jitters at the Australian Open. Struggled with her shots. Struggled against an opponent who's never won a tour-level match.
Kenin, though, knows all that really matters: Who can claim the final point. And, eventually, she managed to do just that Tuesday (Monday EST) at Melbourne Park, setting aside an early deficit and beating 133rd-ranked Australian wild-card entry Maddison Inglis 7-5, 6-4.
"I'm obviously not too happy with the way I played," Kenin said with a chuckle, "but a win is a win."
Inglis is still searching for one: She fell to 0-6 for her career.
Still, boosted by a crowd of locals at Rod Laver Arena, she did not make things easy on Kenin, who nevertheless managed to avoid becoming the first woman since Jennifer Capriati in 2003 to lose in the first round at the Australian Open a year after winning the championship.
"First round, it's obviously nerves for me," said Kenin, who followed up her first major title last year by reaching the final at the French Open.
The woman Kenin defeated for the title in last year's final in Melbourne, two-time major champion Garbiñe Muguruza, also advanced to the second round, defeating Margarita Gasparyan of Russia 6-4, 6-0.
Muguruza dropped only 11 points in the second set and improved to 9-0 in first-round matches at the Australian Open.
In other early results on Day 2 on a sunny day with the temperature in the low 70s Fahrenheit (low 20s Celsius), 17-year-old Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz became the youngest man to win a Grand Slam match since Thanasi Kokkinakis was one day younger at the 2014 Australian Open.
Alcaraz eliminated Botic Van de Zandschulp, a 25-year-old from the Netherlands who is ranked 151st, by a score of 6-1, 6-4, 6-4.
A seeded woman exited the tournament when Ann Li, a 20-year-old American, defeat No. 31 Zhang Shuai 6-2, 6-0 in just 47 minutes to improve to 5-0 this season.
Li is ranked 69th and competing in only her third career Grand Slam tournament.
She is coming off an unusual accomplishment at a tune-up tournament at Melbourne Park last week: Li shared the title of the Grampians Trophy with Anett Kontaveit because organizers decided not to hold a final so as not to wear out the players right before the Australian Open.
That warmup event was created for players such as Li who had to go into a hard lockdown after potentially being exposed to COVID-19. They were not allowed out of their hotel rooms for practice - or any other reason - during a two-week quarantine upon arrival in Australia.
For Kenin, her issues in the early going Tuesday resulted in an early break that led to her falling behind 3-1. Even after she got that back, how close was the opening set?
They players split the first 52 total points, each grabbing 26.
They split the first 10 total winners, each producing five.
But Kenin came through at crunch time.
In the second set, she went up an early break before finding herself even at 3-all, 30-all. A net-cord backhand gave Kenin a break point - she offered the usual "Sorry, not sorry," raised hand - that was converted when Inglis pushed a groundstroke long.
There was one more tight moment. Serving for the victory at 5-4, Kenin faced a break point that she erased with a service winner at 88 mph (142 kph). Moments later, her first match point arrived - and she double-faulted it away.
She pushed a forehand wide on her second chance to close things. But on chance No. 3, a swinging backhand volley winner converted.
Facing a break point late in the third set, Rafael Nadal sprinted to his left and hit a running, around-the-post forehand that landed just inside the line.
Nadal finished off a 6-3 6-4,6-1 win in just under two hours in his first competitive match in months — he didn't play for Spain at the ATP Cup last week because of the back stiffness.
He'll next play American qualifier Michael Mmoh, who outlasted Viktor Troicki 7-6 (3) 6-7 (3) 3-6 7-6 (3) 7-5.
Fourth-seeded Daniil Medvedev extended his winning streak to 15 matches with a 6-2 6-2 6-4 win over Vasek Pospisil and seventh-seeded Andrey Rublev beat Yannick Hanfmann 6-3 6-3 6-4.
Top-ranked Ash Barty dominated in her first Grand Slam match in more than a year, dropping only 10 points in a 6-0 6-0 rout of Danka Kovinic.
Garbiñe Muguruza, the Australian Open runner-up last year, defeated Margarita Gasparyan 6-4, 6-0.
Victoria Azarenka, a two-time Australian Open champion and the runner-up at last year's US Open, appeared to have trouble breathing and received medical attention in the second set of a 7-5, 6-4 loss to Jessica Pegula of the United States.
Sloane Stephens lost to No. 26-seeded Yulia Putintseva 4-6 6-2 6-3 and Paula Badosa, who went through a three-week isolation because she tested positive for COVID-19, served for the match but dropped the last four games and was beaten by Liudmila Samsonova 6-7 (4) 7-6 (4) 7-5.
Two-time Australian Open quarterfinalist Tennys Sandgren also went through the hard lockdown. After losing to No. 21 Alex de Minaur 7-5 6-1 6-1, Sandgren said for those who'd been through it, the tournament is "not feasible."
In other results on a sunny Day 2 with the temperature in the low 70s Fahrenheit (low 20s Celsius), Australian wild-card entry Alexei Popyrin saved four match points to beat No. 13 David Goffin 3-6 6-4 6-7 (4) 7-6 (6) 6-3 and 17-year-old Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz defeated Botic Van de Zandschulp 6-1 6-4 6-4 to become the youngest man to win a Grand Slam match since Thanasi Kokkinakis in 2014.
And an even younger player, 16-year-old Coco Gauff, won 6-3 6-2 against Jil Teichmann to set up a second-round showdown against fifth-seeded Elina Svitolina.
Other seeded players advancing included No. 6 Karolina Pliskova, No. 21 Anett Kontaveit and No. 25 Karolina Muchova.
Mayar Sherif made history for Egyptian tennis, beating fellow qualifier Chloe Paquet 7-5 7-5 to become the first woman from her country to win a Grand Slam match.
