The canvas is clear for Aryna Sabalenka this season.
Gone are the autographs on trainer Jason Stacy’s bald head with each passing win.
The signatures, which started as an impromptu pre-match ritual at Melbourne Park a year ago, were scrawled on Stacy’s scalp all the way to her second straight Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup.
On her run to the US Open title later in the year, Stacy agreed instead to a stick-on tiger tattoo on his head provided his charge reached the final.
On Friday, the world No.1 made it 17 straight Australian Open match wins with a come-from-behind 7-6(5) 6-4 victory over Denmark’s Clara Tauson at Rod Laver Arena.
Her stacked player’s box rose in unison, a nod of approval to the scrap she pulled through against a plucky challenger, and Stacy’s head remained ink- and tattoo-free, for now.
“I don't know. Honestly, with our team, it's not like we're thinking and we're trying to find something,” she laughed. “It just like comes naturally. I don't know. If it's going to happen, it's going to happen. We had my signature there, we had my tattoo there. We need to come up with something cool, you know?”
Sporting tiger stripes on the shoelaces to match the feline tattoo on her arm, Sabalenka strode onto court having claimed her opening seven matches of the new season, following her 18th title in Brisbane.
Thirty minutes into the duel and with scores locked at 3-all, however, the top seed was yet to stamp her authority.
Despite boasting one of the finest serves on tour, she threw her head back with a smile of disbelief after Tauson blazed a crosscourt winner on her way to a seventh straight break of serve between the pair.
A champion in Auckland leading in – her first title since 2021 – the Dane was savouring an injury-free form-building start to the year and was the first to snap the streak when she grasped the initiative and edged to within a game of the opening set at 5-3.
San Diego in 2022 was the last tour event that Sabalenka had been broken four times in the opening set of a match. She went on to beat Sloane Stephens in three sets on that occasion.
It was a good omen as she surged back on serve.
Four times Tauson faced a set point at 5-6. Four times she found a first serve to force the tiebreak, yet still she was unable to stop the momentum against her.
“It’s heavy conditions. When we were making those breaks, it wasn’t like disappointment or something, it was just like keep pushing, keep trying your best and yeah I came back,” she said.
“It was really important to get all of those breaks back. It could go either way and I’m just super happy that I was able to close this match and be in the fourth round.
“I was playing this match and thinking ‘wow girl, you’re really tough. So many times I was thinking ‘okay I’m done’, but I was lucky I kept pushing.”
The top seed had the wind in her sails and capitalised on the 22-year-old’s letdown at having let her chances slip when she hammered home the advantage early in the second set before the world No.42 rallied to level the set.
Sabalenka, while below her best, found enough when she needed it. She absorbed pace and pulled the trigger on a forehand into the corner for the final break before she closed it out for her fifth successive AO fourth-round berth after two hours and six minutes for a clash against 14th seed Mirra Andreeva or 23rd seed Magdalena Frech.
“That was a great battle. She played unbelievable tennis,” Sabalenka said. “It was really tough to play against her today, and I’m just super happy that I was able to just stay in the game.
“I was able to push myself honestly to the limit and try my best to put that ball back on that side and try to get this win.”