No.3 seed Elena Rybakina recovered from a slow start to win her Australian Open first round 7-6(6), 6-4 over Karolina Pliskova in 1 hour and 33 minutes, saving triple set point in the first-set tiebreak along the way.

Rybakina, who was runner-up in Melbourne last year to Aryna Sabalenka, has enjoyed a superb start to 2024. The Kazakhstani claimed her sixth career title in Brisbane two weeks ago, routing Sabalenka 6-0, 6-3 in the final and now owns a 7-1 record this season.

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The result maintained Rybakina's perfect record against two-time major finalist Pliskova. She now leads their head-to-head 4-0, including 8-0 in sets and 3-0 in tiebreaks. The 24-year-old will face the opposite dynamic in her second round against Anna Blinkova, though.

No.57-ranked Blinkova, who defeated Cristina Bucsa 6-2, 6-4, won their only pro encounter in the 2017 St. Petersburg ITF W100 semifinals, as well as their only junior meeting in a Moscow clay-court final in 2014.

Set-point saves: Rybakina was slow out of the blocks, losing the first eight points of the match in a flurry of forehand errors to go down 2-0. Throughout the set, her ground game was prone to misfiring, and the former Wimbledon champion committed 18 unforced errors to 11 winners in the opener.

However, a heavy backhand return garnered her the break back for 2-2, and Rybakina held her first three set points at 6-5 on Pliskova's serve. But the Czech managed to save all three, then appeared to have turned momentum in her favor as she advanced to 6-3 in the ensuing tiebreak.

Rybakina came up with clutch play to escape all three set points, though, including two with spectacular winners. On the first, the luck of the net cord seemed to go Pliskova's way -- only for Rybakina to sprint forward and find an angled drop shot at full stretch. On the third, a crunching off forehand from the World No.3 found the line. Two points later, Rybakina converted her own fourth set point as a Pliskova forehand went long.

Rybakina captured the crucial second-set break of serve early to move up 2-1, and played a cleaner set with 15 winners to seven unforced errors to maintain this advantage. With her back to the wall, Pliskova showed some fight; the former World No.1 saved one match point serving at 3-5 and came up with a reflexed single-handed backhand pass to escape a third in the next game. But on the fourth, she had no answer to the forehand Rybakina thumped into the corner.