Azarenka only played 15 matches in 2014 after last year’s Australian Open thanks to injuries to both feet and a right knee. And unsurprisingly, her ranking has tumbled from No. 2 to outside the top 40.
Twice a champion in Melbourne, the 25-year-old entered her first-round encounter against Sloane Stephens unseeded.
Stephens has also seen better days, including in 2013 when the pair met not in the first round but in the semifinals at the year’s opening major.
It was perhaps the most enticing first-round tussle of the tournament but Azarenka ensured the hype bettered the actual match as she eased past the American — whose tag of next-big-thing in women’s tennis isn’t yet materializing — 6-3 6-2 in 75 minutes.
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U.S. Open finalist Kei Nishikori, meanwhile, downed 2013 quarterfinalist Nicolas Almagro 6-4 7-6 (1) 6-2.
Almagro, whose ranking has plummeted from the top 15 because of foot and shoulder injuries, hit 50 unforced errors.
