Former champion Caroline Wozniacki prolonged her swansong with a battling 7-5 7-5 win over No.23 seed Dayana Yastremska to reach the third round at Melbourne Park.
This is the final tournament of Wozniacki’s distinguished career, she announced in November that she would retire after the Australian Open to focus on new endeavours including starting a family, and for the first half hour it looked like this would be her final match.
Yastremska, a decade younger, appeared to have no room for sentimentality as she tore into a Wozniacki serve which too often landed invitingly in the middle of the box. Walloping winners left, right and centre, she appeared utterly at ease against the former champion as she raced to a 5-1 lead.
"She came out swinging, making the lines and everything was going in, even balls that I don't think she knew were possible to hit it that way," said Wozniacki afterwards.
"I was just thinking to myself, it surely can't continue. If it's going to continue, then there is not much I can do out there."
For the opening six games, the only thing which could disturb the 19-year-old Ukrainian’s resolute focus was a pair of curious swallows which repeatedly circled the court before taking roost in the upper rafters.
But like so many young players of her generation, Yastremska is only capable of playing one tempo tennis. As her arm tightened with the set within reach, and Wozniacki managing to find an extra level of defensive guile, there was no Plan B.
Suddenly the errors began tumbling off the Yastremska racket in clusters. Wozniacki retrieved first one break and then another. At one stage she won 11 points in a row. Six games later and the former champion had completed a remarkable turnaround to clinch the first set.
Over the course of Wozniacki’s 15-year long career, the game has changed immeasurably. Opponents have become progressively taller, more powerful. The sheer depth of talent with the strength to clatter winners past her has grown beyond compare. But from one generation to the next, the Dane has always retained the defensive skill and mental fortitude to wear them down, to rush and sometimes coax them into attempting the unwise.
The second set was a microcosm of the first. Yastremska emerged from a brief bathroom break fresh and composed, while Wozniacki seemed disturbed by a mass mid-set crowd rendition of YMCA. 11 of the first 12 points went to the Ukrainian and soon she had a 3-0, then a 4-2 lead.
But again she found her free flowing tennis dragged back into a war of attrition. At times there were the odd glimpses of Wozniacki at her very best – anticipating stretching, scampering, contorting her body into all manner of positions to fashion the ball back into play.
As the set became close once more, it was clear there was only likely to be one winner. And yet as the finish line approached Wozniacki herself seemed to panic. Three match points on the Yastremska serve went begging 5-4, then two more at 6-5. But finally another Yastremska forehand tumbled long and the match was hers.
Wozniacki was in reflective mood afterwards as she looked back at some of the decisions which have helped her reach World No.1 and become a Grand Slam champion over the years, in particular her dedication to fitness and the coaching partnership with her father Piotr.
"I think sticking with my dad and that partnership I think, you know, has made me the player that I am today," she said.
"I definitely wouldn't have been where I am today if it wasn't for him, because the trust that was there between us and just the journey I think was amazing. I think the choice of having great fitness coaches has really shaped the player that I am, because I have always been the (most) physically fit and the strongest player out there, or at least in my head. If I wasn't, I was one of them. I think that has really given me a lot over the years."