The China Mail - Australian Open title rivals ease through in Brisbane warm-up

Sabalenka, the world number one beaten in last year's Melbourne final by Keys, took just 48 minutes to dispose of Cristina Bucsa 6-0, 6-1 in the second round of the season-opening tournament.

Sabalenka said the fact that she played so well in her first match of the campaign showed that her divisive December 28 "Battle of the Sexes" exhibition match in Dubai against Kyrgios had been worthwhile.

"When you play against a guy the intensity is completely different," said the Belarusian.

"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 today I was, like, whew, let's move around, you know."

Sabalenka will now play Sorana Cirstea in the third round and remains on track to meet Keys in the quarter-finals, a rematch of last year's Australian Open final.

Keys reached the Brisbane third round with a 6-4, 6-3 win over fellow American McCartney Kessler.

Like Sabalenka, Keys had a bye into the second round and said she had found it tough to find 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 said.

"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."

Former Wimbledon champion and third seed Rybakina moved through with a 6-3, 7-5 win over Chinese qualifier Zhang Shuai.

Kyrgios is making a tentative comeback to tennis after an injury-ravaged three years saw him slip to 670 in the world.

In his first tour-level singles match since March, the former Wimbledon finalist showed glimpses of his talent but lacked consistency against American Aleksandar Kovacevic in a 6-3, 6-4 loss.

"I feel good and I'm going to be able to try and use it as a building block," said Kyrgios.

The Australian Open starts January 18.

W.Cheng--ThChM