Day one of Australian Open 2026 has already produced a match for the history books.
Elsa Jacquemot upset Marta Kostyuk in a three-and-a-half-hour thriller at ANZ Arena, where each of the three sets was decided by a tiebreak.
MORE: All the results from Australian Open 2026
It’s the first time that’s happened in a women’s singles match at Melbourne Park since the tournament introduced final-set tiebreaks in 2019.
At three hours and 31 minutes, it was also the longest women’s singles match at the event since that introduction, with the almost-bewildering final scoreline reading 6-7(4) 7-6(4) 7-6[10- 7].
The previous record post-2019 was three hours and 20 minutes, set last year by Emma Navarro and Peyton Stearns whose all-American first-round match-up ended 6-7(5) 7-6(5) 7-5.
“It was a crazy match,” Jacquemot told reporters at Melbourne Park, where temperatures on Sunday were pushing 30 degrees.
“Marta played so good,” she said. “So I'm very happy to win this match. It is not easy.”
The result was Jacquemot’s first top-20 win and a maiden Australian Open main-draw victory.
The 22-year-old Frenchwoman saved a match point in the second set and was leading 6-5 in the decider when Kostyuk suffered what appeared to be a nasty ankle roll, which required a medical time-out.
Kostyuk, the world No.20 who made the Brisbane International final last week, returned to play with heavy ankle strapping but was visibly uncomfortable.
The Ukrainian rallied, however, managing to win the game and force a final tiebreak, before eventually falling 7-10 to her opponent.
“It’s not easy because you feel it’s kinda like the end of the match,” Jacquemot said of trying to keep concentration after the injury delay.
“It was at an important moment [in the match]. I tried to stay as calm as possible… I’m really happy I stayed focused.”
“It’s hard. We played for more than three hours, and [Kostyuk is] a player that really loves to run.
“I really need to recover because it was a very long match,” Jacquemot said ahead of a second-round matchup with Yulia Putintseva.
Day one of the main draw also served up the largest day-session crowd in Australian Open history with 73,235 fans coming through the gates, surpassing the 68,883 on middle Saturday in 2019.