Sloane Stephens upset in first-round match at Australian Open

The competition will take on a rather unfamiliar appearance from hereon in, with neither Venus nor Serena through to the second round after the former – the fifth seed – was beaten by Belinda Bencic on Monday.

“I don’t think I played a bad match”, she said. “I think she raised her level and she played a good match, as well”, Stephens said. “I lost to Venus four times and I tried my best to give my all today, and changed some things tactically”, Belinda who is now running high on 16 tour matches winning streak gushed. Williams had 26 unforced errors and 22 winners.

Belinda Bencic is coming off of her Hopman Cup win alongside tennis great Roger Federer.

When asked if Federer’s parents presence in her box added extra pressure, she replied: ‘No, definitely not. “I couldn’t wait to come back, so it means a lot”. It was a very, very long time when I was out.

The carnage continued as reigning US Open champ Sloane Stephens saw her nightmare run of results continue with a 2-6, 6-6 (7-2), 6-2 defeat to unsafe Chinese contender Zhang Shuai.

With defending champion and new mum Serena absent, 20-year-old Bencic’s brilliant 6-3, 7-5 win under the Rod Laver Arena roof ensured there would not be a Williams sister in the second round of the tournament for the first time in over 20 years.

It all amounted to a big shift in mood from the last Grand Slam tournament: a shift best represented by Stephens’ coach, Kamau Murray, normally a gifted and expansive communicator who walked out of Margaret Court Arena wearing a pained expression before delivering a series of remarkably curt answers to a series of questions. The World No 78 Bencic sent shockwaves down the tournament and the draw with her win which saw her play with sheer confidence and outhit seven-time Grand Slam victor Venus. That he’s trying to give advice and help also someone like me. “It will be OK”.

Stephens had a chance to serve for the match in the 10th game of the second set but dropped her serve.

American Ryan Harrison was among the men advancing, beating Dudi Sela in five sets to set up a match a gainst No. 10 Pablo Carreño Busta.

They resumed with Bencic serving at deuce and the Swiss then crucially reeled off the next two points for 5-3 before breaking Williams again to take the opener 6-3. She returned on a roll, winning the next six points to hold serve and then clinch the set.

“Last year was last year”, Venus Williams said after her loss.

And even though a clearly stunned Williams said she didn’t know what her future schedule would be (she surely wasn’t expecting to leave Melbourne so early), none of us know how her outside business interests as a designer has had an impact on her commitment to tennis.

The 20-year-old Swiss girl, who had lost to Venus’s sister Serena last year, said she was prepared for another tough match.

French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko is aiming for a second major title, but her form has slumped this year and she faces a tough battle with veteran Italian Francesca Schiavone first up.

The 11th seed fell to Kyle Edmund 6-7 (4), 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 win. Serena, of course, is on maternity leave so if nothing else the women’s draw – also missing dual champion Victoria Azarenko, who is confined to California because of a child custody dispute – is more replete with possibility than might otherwise be the case.