Andreeva, Shnaider navigate tough Melbourne openers from a set down

Mirra Andreeva and Diana Shnaider had been handed two of the toughest first-round draws at the Australian Open. But the two good friends and former doubles partners passed their tests within minutes of each other -- both coming from a set down to do so -- on Monday evening at Melbourne Park.

No. 8 seed Andreeva, fresh off collecting her fifth title on the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz in Adelaide last week, won the last seven straight games to defeat Donna Vekic 4-6, 6-3, 6-0 in 1 hour and 54 minutes. She was followed by No. 23 seed Shnaider, who withstood a barrage of winners from Barbora Krejcikova and pulled through 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 in 2 hours and 12 minutes as the Czech began to ail physically.

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Andreeva established herself as one of the form players of 2026 after winning Adelaide without dropping a set -- something that would be put to the test when she was drawn against former No. 17 and 2024 Wimbledon semifinalist Vekic off the bat. The Croatian's ranking has fallen to No. 72 following a 2025 slump, but she had already pushed Andreeva all the way in their only previous meeting in Beijing last year, and her ability to go toe-to-toe with the best in the game was evident during a superb first set-and-a-half.

Vekic unleashed with a series of fierce forehands and clawed her way through multiple deuce tussles to take the first set from 3-1 down. But Andreeva kept her composure and began to out-manoeuvre Vekic with sharp angles and confident net finishes. From 2-2 in the second set, the teenager won 10 of the next 11 games, easing to the finishing line as Vekic faded.

"I'm very happy with how I came back in this match," Andreeva said in her on-court interview. "We've been trying to work on me staying focused, sticking to the plan and doing what I have to do on the court. Sometimes it's more difficult, sometimes there are obviously days when it's harder to do that. Now I realize that it really depends on how much I want to do it. Now, so far, I've found the mindset [that it] really doesn't matter what's going on the court -- just to still go for my shots and try to be brave."

In her press conference, Andreeva noted that she was pleased her work on her composure was being noticed.

"The whole past year I was still working on the little details," she said. "No matter what happens, to always stick to the plan, not to lose the focus or not to get into the panic mode when something doesn't go according to the plan. Now I feel like I really understand that it's kind of easier for me to focus on that when I'm playing a match ... Maybe because I'm finally getting smarter. It's just easier for me to realize that the panic won't help here."

And although Andreeva has been amusing crowds in Australia by joshing with her team about how her results are all down to her, rather than them -- a joke she repeated in her on-court interview in Melbourne -- once she got to the press room, she was more serious.

"The only thing that's going to help is if I stay calm, I listen to what my team says, to what Conchita [Martínez] says," she said. "The only chance that I have to win the match is to do the right things, the things that I was told by my coach and that's it."

Andreeva will take on another former major semifinalist in the second round -- Maria Sakkari, whom she has not faced before.

Shnaider overcomes ailing Krejcikova in popcorn first-round encounter

Shnaider, who won the 2024 Paris Olympic Games silver medal in doubles alongside Andreeva, has also made a positive start to the season. She stretched Madison Keys to a triple-tiebreak thriller in the Brisbane third round, then reached the Adelaide semifinals last week. But two-time Grand Slam champion Krejcikova was one of the most dangerous unseeded players in Melbourne, and Shnaider knew it.

"When I saw the draw, I thought, 'Oh, great,'" she said wryly in her on-court interview. "At least it's going to be a great match."

Krejcikova, currently ranked No. 58 due to injury layoffs in 2025, found her peak level in an astonishing first set. She tallied 15 winners in eight games, clouting them down the line and crosscourt off both wings with her trademark smooth striking.

"After the first set, it felt unreal that I would be winning the match," Shnaider said. "I just told myself I needed to stay in the match, because she played incredible ... It's OK, I need to wait for the moment where it can switch, and I need to step up my game."

That's exactly what happened. Krejcikova opened the second set by breaking Shnaider for a third time, but Shnaider struck back immediately, hammering a forehand winner to convert her first break point of the match. As the set went on, Shnaider's serving stats improved -- she landed 72% on her first serves in the second set, compared to 56% in the first -- while Krejcikova was unable to sustain her initial unplayable brilliance.

Serving down 4-3, Krejcikova's intensity dipped further, and a slew of uncharacteristic errors handed a key break to Shnaider. The 21-year-old pressed home her advantage by breaking Krejcikova again in a marathon opening game to the third set. By this point, Krejcikova -- whose left leg was heavily strapped throughout -- was visibly hampered in her movement, and she took an off-court medical timeout trailing 2-1.

On resumption, Shnaider had to hold her nerve -- and her game plan -- against an opponent who was unable to cover the court as she had initially, but whose ball-striking was as lethal as ever from a standing position. She succeeded, coming with a pair of hot shots of her own as she approached the finishing line -- a breathtaking backhand down the line in the fifth game, and an angled backhand volley at full stretch that caught the outside of the line in the seventh game.

The result was Shnaider's second win over a major champion at a Grand Slam, following her defeat of Sloane Stephens in the 2024 Wimbledon second round. She will next face Australian wild card Talia Gibson.