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Melbourne - French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko survived a second-set scare from corset-wearing Italian veteran Francesca Schiavone to get her Australian Open campaign off to winning start on Monday.
World number seven Ostapenko raced through the first set on Rod Laver Arena against the 2010 Roland Garros winner 6-1.
But she found herself 4-1 down in the second to the world number 93 who was bizarrely wearing a weightlifter-style back brace over her tennis top.
The big-hitting Latvian soon found her range again and hit back with two breaks of the Schiavone serve, the second achieved with a trademark forehand winner.
Ostapenko then served out with no further alarms to take the match 6-1, 6-4 in one hour and 14 minutes.
"Second set I was missing a little bit but I managed to get through," said Ostapenko, who was recording her maiden match victory of 2018 having lost in the first rounds at both the Shenzhen and Sydney warm-up events.
She will next meet China's Duan Yingying who overcame Colombia's Mariana Duque -Marino in straight sets.
Results from the Australian Open on Monday:
Men's singles
1st round
Alexandr Dolgopolov (UKR) bt Andreas Haider-Maurer (AUT) 7-6 (7/3), 6-3, 6-4
Pablo Carreno-Busta (ESP x10) bt Jason Kubler (AUS) 7-5, 4-6, 7-5, 6-1
Pablo Cuevas (URU x31) bt Mikhail Youzhny (RUS) 7-6 (9/7), 6-3, 7-5
Gilles Muller (LUX x23) bt Federico Del Bonis (ARG) 7-5, 6-4, 6-3
Ryan Harrison (USA) bt Dudi Sela (ISR) 6-3, 5-7, 3-6, 7-5, 6-2
Kyle Edmund (GBR) bt Kevin Anderson (RSA x11) 6-7 (4/7), 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4
Denis Istomin (UZB) bt Pierre-Hugues Herbert (FRA) 6-2, 6-1, 5-7, 7-6 (7/3)
Women's singles
1st round
Alize Cornet (FRA) bt Wang Xinyu (CHN) 6-4, 6-2
Jelena Ostapenko (LAT x7) bt Francesca Schiavone (ITA) 6-1, 6-4
Duan Yingying (CHN) bt Mariana Duque-Marino (COL) 6-0, 6-1
Magdalena Rybarikova (SVK x19) bt Taylor Townsend (USA) 6-0, 7-5
Julia Goerges (GER x12) bt Sofia Kenin (USA) 6-4, 6-4
Petra Martic (CRO) bt Alison Van Uytvanck (BEL) 7-6 (7/5), 6-3
Zhang Shuai (CHN) bt Sloane Stephens (USA x13) 2-6, 7-6 (7/2), 6-2
Mona Barthel (GER) bt Monica Niculescu (ROM) 6-4, 7-5
Belinda Bencic (SUI) bt Venus Williams (USA x5) 6-3, 7-5
Irina Begu (ROM) bt Ekaterina Makarova (RUS x31) 3-6, 6-4, 8-6
Anett Kontaveit (EST x32) bt Aleksandra Krunic (SRB) 6-4, 7-5
Kaia Kanepi (EST) bt Dominika Cibulkova (SVK x24) 6-2, 6-2
Timea Babos (HUN) bt Coco Vandeweghe (USA x10) 7-6 (7/4), 6-2
Kirsten Flipkens (BEL) bt Alison Riske (USA) 2-6, 7-6 (8/6), 6-3
Kiki Bertens (NED x30) bt Catherine Bellis (USA) 6-7 (5/7), 6-4, 6-2
