Zverev overcomes sluggish start to win Australian Open first-round match

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MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Third-seeded Alexander Zverev shrugged off a sluggish start to power through his first-round match against rising star Gabriel Diallo as the Australian Open got underway on Sunday.

Zverev, the runner-up at Melbourne Park last year, slumped in the first set against the 24-year-old Canadian before rallying on the back of his strong serve to win 6-7 (7), 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 on Rod Laver Arena. He's into the second round at Melbourne Park for the 10th straight year.

“Definitely when I saw the draw, wasn’t too happy to be honest,” Zverev said in an on-court interview, speaking of the tricky challenge presented by No. 41-ranked Diallo. "He’s very young, very talented. Unbelievably aggressive.

“First set wasn’t my best tennis, I would say. I was thinking, 'can’t get worse than that.” It got a lot better after that for me."

Seventh-seeded Jasmine Paolini beat Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-1, 6-2 in the opening game on the main show court in Melbourne.

Paolini wasted little time, and energy, taking the first set in 27 minutes and not much longer in the second to wrap up her match against Sasnovich.

“I was focused I think all the time, so it was good," Paolini said. "And, yeah, it’s not easy to play the first match at the Slams on a big court, but I’m happy with my performance.”

Fellow Italian, No. 20 Flavio Cobolli, became the first of the seeded men's players to exit the tournament in a 7-6 (7), 6-4, 6-1 loss to British qualifier Arthur Fery.

Also, No. 18 seed Francisco Cerundolo beat Zhang Zhizhen 6-3, 7-6 (0), 6-3, and No. 32 seed Corentin Moutet held off Tristan Schoolkate 6-4, 7-6 (1), 6-3, finishing with an under-arm serve on match point.

On the women's side, No. 12 Elina Svitolina defeated Cristina Bucsa 6-4, 6-1, and Maria Sakkari won over Leolia Jeanjean 6-4, 6-2.

Former Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova withdrew because of a shoulder injury before her scheduled first-round match, giving a place in the main draw to Taylor Townsend, the lucky loser from qualifying, to take on Hailey Baptiste.

In a 2 1/2-hour all-American contest on Court 13, Baptiste prevailed 6-3, 6-7 (3), 6-3.

The No. 1 seeds for men and women headline Sunday's night session at the Rod Laver Arena. Aryna Sabalenka faces Tiantsoa Rakotomanga Rajaonah, and Carlos Alcaraz goes against Adam Walton.

Sabalenka is after her third Australia Open title and was the runner-up to Madison Keys a year ago. She has reached the last three finals and won two.

Alcaraz is trying to become the youngest man to win a career Grand Slam. The 22-year-old Spaniard has won twice in the other three Grand Slams but has not been past the quarterfinals at the Australia Open.

No. 2 seed Jannik Sinner, the two-time defending Australian Open champion, has combined with Alcaraz to win the last eight Grand Slam trophies.

The highlight of the day might feature a player ranked No. 576 by the WTA.

That would be, of course, 45-year-old Venus Williams. She will be the oldest player to compete in singles at the Australian Open. Williams received a wild card to enter the tournament and has won seven Grand Slam titles — the last in 2008 at Wimbledon.

Williams faces Olga Danilović of Serbia in the evening session.

Williams was married in December to Italian Andrea Preti. She was 17 when she first played the Australian Open in 1998, reaching the quarterfinals in just her fourth Grand Slam event.

She's never won the Australian Open. She made the finals in 2003 and 2017 and lost both times to her sister, Serena. She won five Wimbledon titles and two at the U.S. Open.

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