Angelique Kerber did not make a convincing start to the defence of her Australian Open title but still did enough to avoid an upset defeat by Ukrainian world No 51 Lesia Tsurenko on Monday.
All appeared well as Kerber, the world No 1, brought up a match point as she served for a straight-sets win. Around an hour later, Kerber was relieved to have finally sealed a 6-2, 5-7, 6-2 victory after Tsurenko had forced a deciding set.
Kerber has not hit the ground running at the start of this year, winning just one of her three matches in Brisbane and Sydney. The German believes, however, that a tough test in the first round of a Grand Slam will serve her well.
“I think it’s always good to have a match like this in the first few rounds,” Kerber said. “It’s always tough for everybody to get the rhythm and to start the tournament, especially the first Grand Slam of the year. So I think it was not so bad to have a match like that in the first round.”
After Tsurenko saved match point, she stunned the Rod Laver Arena crowd by levelling the match at one set all. Her recent record in deciding sets was strong, winning her last eight.
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Kerber looked in trouble as she faced a break point at 1-2, but saved it with a blistering running forehand down the line. It proved pivotal as she held and then broke for 3-2 with Tsurenko hitting wide.
As Tsurenko tired, Kerber was coming out on top in the gruelling rallies and she closed out the win in two hours and four minutes without losing another game.
“I was actually feeling not bad,” Kerber said. “From the beginning, I was trying to play my game. I played actually a good match. I made a little bit easy mistakes at the end of the second set.
“But she was playing actually not so bad. She played a really consistent match. I was trying to just go for it in the third set and just try to play my game. I think that was the key for the match today.”
Kerber, who faces compatriot Carina Witthoeft in the second round, admitted that her first-round match last year, in which she saved a match point before coming through, was briefly in her mind.
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“That was one moment when I was sitting on the bench,” Kerber said. “I remember the match from last year. It was the opposite actually. I was down match point, here I was up match point. But it was just really a short moment that I was thinking about the match.”
• Roger Federer returned to competitive action with a four-set win over Jurgen Melzer in the first round of the Australian Open. The 35-year-old beat the Austrian 7-5, 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 at the Rod Laver Arena after six months out with a knee injury. “Any match is a good match, even if I had lost, because I’m back on the court. It was a long road but I made it, ” said Federer after hitting 19 aces in a match that lasted just over two hours. The 17 time Grand Slam winner will play 20-year-old American Noah Rubin in the second round.