Second day of women's action on Australian Open 2023, same as preceding one, was full of quality from the top contenders who started their grand slam campaign with wins in opening matches against unseeded players.
Not everyone had a cakewalk though, as the highest seed who played today - Ons Jabeur, had quite a trouble against Tamara Zidansek, ranked #98. First set was the shaky one with many plot twists and advantage going from one side to another. First eight games brought four breaks in general. Jabeur had a chance to close the set during a breakpoint in 10th game, but Zidansek held the service and tie-break was needed. The Slovenian could regret a lot there, while she did not convert any of three set points, giving away a dramatic set to the favorized Tunesian, 10-8 in tiebreak. The odds outsider of this match has not dropped the ball though. In another even battle in set number two, she was the first to break in eight game. Despite not capitalizing the advantage again, and allowing Jabeur to break back (not converting the set point on the road as well), Zidansek gained another break in 10th game and equalized the set score. However, the decider was a display of Jabeur's class, worthy of second player in the world's rank. The Tunisian won 6 games in a row closing the match with great display of performance in third set, finished 6-1.
Another favorites did not had such the eventful start of their AO campaigns. Aryna Sabalenka defeated Tereza Martincova 6-1 6-4, while Caroline Garcia gave away just 3 games for qualifier Katerine Sebov, 6-0 6-3.
Belinda Bencic who won the last week's WTA 500 in Adelaide did not allow to get cursed by winning the grand slam's preceding tournament and defeated Viktoriya Tomova 6-1 6-2, showing her adherence to the field of title contenders.
Second day, same as whole the round in general, did not bring any great upset. One of today's highlights was the contest between Elise Mertens and Garbine Muguruza. The Spaniard, who goes through really dark time in her career, suffered another bitter loss, being a slight favorite in this match-up despite the series of 7 losses in 10 last matches, 4 in the row recently before today's play. It could, and it should end up with breaking of this wrong streak, as Muguruza won the first set and was just one game away from closing the whole match, serving for it within a score 6-5 in second set. Former grand slam champion did not capitalized her advantage, allowed Belgian to make it into tiebreak, won by Mertens 7-3, and dropped the ball completely in decider, losing it 1-6.
Elise Mertens earned the placed in second round as another seed who skipped the first round successfully. Just three seeded ladies are eliminated from the tournament at the end of Day 2 - Martina Trevisan (21), Marie Bouzkova (25), Amanda Anisimova (28), and Kaia Kanepi (31). However, the first round is still not completed, as the rain disrupted matches scheduled on the outside courts in the evening session and a couple of them are still to be played tomorow. Daria Kasatkina and Beatriz Haddad Maia are the highlight players, who are still to start their opening matches on Wednesday.
