Daria Gavrilova was on song in the opening round of the Yarra Valley Classic WTA tournament in Melbourne, making up for missing a karaoke night.
The 26-year-old Australian chose to skip a night out for a friend’s birthday because of her match, but she made it worthwhile with a crushing 6-2 6-0 win against Slovakian Viktoria Kuzmova.
Taking just 65 minutes on Margaret Court Arena, the victory sets up a second-round clash with Serena Williams, who had an opening bye in the Australian Open warm-up event.
Gavrilova is on the comeback trail after a more than a year out battling a debilitating foot injury, with her world ranking plummeting to as low as No.785.
The one-time world No.20 looked fit against the world No.98 and hit double the winners and made half the unforced errors in a pleasing performance.
“I missed a big event with my friend Greg’s birthday and going to karaoke and I was pretty upset about that and thought I had to lock it in today,” Gavrilova said.
Meanwhile, fellow Australian Astra Sharma blew a golden chance to advance against Estonian veteran Kaia Kanepi.
Sharma, who made the Australian Open mixed doubles final in 2019, looked sharp early in her opening-round clash on Sunday with the world No.94.
The 25-year-old was two points from a straight-sets victory but stumbled to bow out 1-6 7-5 6-2.
Currently ranked world No.125, Sharma is coached by Dave Taylor, who was Samantha Stosur’s long-time mentor.
Fellow Australian Arina Rodionova was also an early casualty, beaten by French 12th seed Caroline Garcia 6-3 6-4 ,while Maddison Inglis only managed to win three games against Swede Rebecca Peterson.
The women are playing in two WTA events, running concurrently, while a third starts Wednesday ahead of the February 8 Open start date.
Australia’s world No.1 Ash Barty has a first-round bye.