Former Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova made a victorious return to action on Monday, defeating Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-4, 6-7(4), 6-2 in a high-quality first-round contest at the Adelaide International.
Vondrousova was playing her first match since losing in the first round of Wimbledon as defending champion to Jessica Bouzas Maneiro six months ago. The Czech subsequently underwent shoulder surgery in August and is now ranked No.39.
This is the fourth time since 2016 that the 25-year-old has been sidelined for half a year or more due to injury. In 2016, an elbow injury forced to to sit out six months, and she was beset by two separate wrist issues in 2019 and 2022.
Despite a wobble in the second set, which she lost from 5-3 up despite coming within two points of victory in that game, Vondrousova's form was impressive against Pavlyuchenkova. She showed off her renowned finesse almost immediately, coming up with a brilliant lofted lob in the third game of the match, but as the contest went on it was Vondrousova's increased aggression that was notable as she fired 51 winners to the powerful Pavlyuchenkova's 55.
This was particularly evident on serve. Vondrousova slammed down 22 aces in total -- having never previously exceeded nine in a single match at tour level.
"The serve was definitely the best thing today," she said afterwards with satisfaction.
The former No.5 will next face either No.6 seed Diana Shnaider or qualifier Katerina Siniakova.
Junior No.1 Jones makes victorious WTA debut
Elsewhere, 16-year-old junior No.1 Emerson Jones caused a splash on her WTA main-draw debut, racing past qualifier Wang Xinyu 6-4, 6-0 in 1 hour and 12 minutes to notch her first Top 50 win. The No.371-ranked Australian wild card, who was the Australian Open and Wimbledon girls' finalist and the ITF Junior Masters champion last year, was sanguine afterwards.
"At the start of the match, because I never played a Top 550 player before, I was a bit wary of how good she was," Jones told press. "I wasn't quite sure. But as the match went on, I was kind of like, 'I've got this. If I really play well and focus, I've got a chance.'
"I was never really like, 'I was going to win this.' Even at 5-0, I was still, I just have to keep focusing on every point. Obviously she's a Top 50 player, so she's very mentally good and could come back at any time.
Jones, who has a wild card for the Australian Open next week as well, also took comparisons with compatriot and retired former World No.1 Ashleigh Barty in stride.
"I actually had this question last week," she said. "But how I answered it was, it's great to be compared to Ash Barty. It's exciting to know she's done all of this and everything. Even with juniors, I find it exciting that people say she did this, and that I'm following in her footsteps. I just think we're all on our different journeys. I just want to see how I go and just focus on myself. Obviously Ash Barty was amazing. It would be very hard to keep up with that."
