Belarus’ Aryna Sabalenka, her goddaughter Nicole, and Australia’s Nick Kyrgios rejoice with trophies after the ‘Battle of the Sexes’ match in Dubai on December 28, 2025. — Reuters
BRISBANE: Aryna Sabalenka stated her much-maligned exhibition match towards Nick Kyrgios had paid dividends as she demolished Cristina Bucsa on Tuesday to launch her Australian Open preparations.
The world primary took simply 48 minutes to get rid of the Spaniard 6-0, 6-1 within the second spherical of the season-opening Brisbane Worldwide.
The convenience of the win towards the world quantity 50 will ship a warning to the Belarusian’s rivals forward of the Australian Open beginning January 18.
She raced by means of the primary set in simply 22 minutes and took solely 26 minutes to say the second towards an opponent who had no reply to the facility of the 27-year-old.
Sabalenka stated the truth that she performed so properly in her first match of the season confirmed that the December 28 exhibition in Dubai towards the mercurial however controversial Kyrgios was worthwhile.
“I mean, when you play against a guy, the intensity is completely different,” she stated.
“Especially when there is Nick, who is drop-shotting every other shot, so you move a lot, so there was a great fitness for me.
“And right now I used to be, like, whew, let’s transfer round, you recognize. “That exhibition, it was fun. It was a great challenge,” she added.
Common view of Australia’s Nick Kyrgios in motion throughout his match towards Belarus’ Aryna Sabalenka in Dubai, UAE on December 28, 2025. — Reuters
“I think we brought so many eyes on tennis. It wasn’t about proving something to anyone, it was able to show that tennis can be really huge.”
Sabalenka will now play both Jelena Ostapenko or Sorana Cirstea within the third spherical and stays on observe to fulfill Madison Keys within the quarter-finals in a rematch of final yr’s Australian Open last, received by the American.
Keys reached the Brisbane third spherical with a 6-4, 6-3 win over fellow American McCartney Kessler.
Like Sabalenka, Keys had a bye into the second spherical and stated she had discovered it powerful to search out her rhythm early on.
“I think it’s sometimes a little bit harder when the person you’re playing has already played a match, and then you’re kind of trying to still knock off a bit of the rust,” she stated.
“I felt like it took a little bit just to find my rhythm, but I feel like once I did it, I kind of settled in a little bit better.”
There have been two main upsets within the males’s draw, with second-seeded Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina and Canada’s fifth seed, Denis Shapovalov, each dropping.
American Brandon Nakashima downed Davidovich Fokina 7-6 (7/4), 6-4, whereas Belgian qualifier Raphael Collignon beat Shapovalov 6-4, 6-2.
