MELBOURNE, Australia (AP)– Andrey Rublev beat wild-card entry Dominic Thiem 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 on Tuesday to schedule his location in the 2nd round of the Australian Open. Thiem, a runner-up at the Australian Open in 2020 and the U.S. Open winner the exact same year, missed out on much of 2021 due to injuries however has actually recuperated from outside the leading 350 in 2015 to a location simply inside the leading 100. He was offered a wild-card entry by competition organizers. “When you see you need to bet Dominic you understand it’s not going to be simple. I understand he’s going through some challenging times so I want him all the very best to come back to the level he can be as quickly as possible,” Rublev stated. Rublev will now play either the Australian qualifier Max Purcell or Emil Ruusuvuori of Finland. No. 5 Aryna Sabalenka kept her unbeaten start to the year with a 6-1, 6-4 win over Tereza Martincova. Sabalenka, who won the Adelaide International title in the very first week of the year, strike 29 winners to her challenger’s 7 as she won her 5th successive match. “It wasn’t that simple, I’m super-happy to begin with the win,” stated Sabalenka, who will play American Shelby Rogers in the 2nd round. “I need to deal with my state of mind and remain calm and not get too upset when I make errors. I truly think this is the only thing missing out on in my video game.” Sabalenka, who has yet to win a Grand Slam songs title, hasn’t made it past the 4th round at the Australian Open in 5 previous check outs. Garbine Muguruza, the runner-up in Melbourne in 2020, lost her 5th successive match to begin the year when she was beaten 3-6, 6-7 (3 ), 6-1 by Elise Mertens. Two-time Grand Slam champ Muguruza served for the match at 6-5 in the 2nd set. Taylor Townsend won her very first Grand Slam match given that ending up being a mom, beating Diane Parry, a wild-card entry from France, 6-1, 6-1. The American will next satisfy Ekaterina Alexandrova. Leylah Fernandez, the previous U.S. Open runner-up, beat Alize Cornet 7-5, 6-2. Martina Trevisan, seeded 21st, was beaten 6-3, 6-2 by qualifier Anna Karolina Schmiedlova. AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights scheduled. This product might not be released, broadcast, reworded or rearranged without authorization.