Sinner's bid for Australian Open three-peat begins with anticlimactic win

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Two sets and just over an hour of tennis wasn't what Jannik Sinner wanted at Rod Laver Arena for the start of his bid for an Australian Open three-peat.

In his first competitive match since beating Carlos Alcaraz at the ATP Finals in November, Sinner was leading 6-2, 6-1 when No. 93-ranked Hugo Gaston suddenly retired from their match Tuesday night with an undisclosed injury.

“I saw that he was not serving with a very high pace,” Sinner said, but “it’s not the way you want to win the match.”

After signaling he had to quit, Gaston went to a courtside chair and bowed his head into his hands. Sinner went to console him, putting a hand on the Frenchman's shoulder and wishing him a speedy recovery.

For Sinner, it was an anticlimactic return to Melbourne Park's main arena 12 months after clinching back-to-back Australian titles with a win over Alexander Zverev in the final.

He played Alcaraz in the finals of the other three majors, winning at Wimbledon and finishing runner-up at Roland Garros and the U.S. Open, as the so-called Sincaraz rivals extended their dominance of Grand Slam tournaments to a second full year.

Sinner isn't content with evenly splitting the titles with Alcaraz, though. He used his time off to concentrate on adjusting his service motion and tweaking other parts of his game in the search for incremental improvements.

“I’ve put in many, many long days in the off-season trying to become a better tennis player,” No. 2-ranked Sinner said. “But at the end of the day the most important part is to go on court and to enjoy, no? It’s very special to start the season in a night session match here in a Grand Slam, the packed stadium, just trying to do your best.”

Sinner is aiming to become the fourth player to win three consecutive men's titles at the Australian Open.

Wearing a wide-brim hat, veil and holding a white parasol as she walked onto Rod Laver Arena for the last night match, Naomi Osaka made a grand entrance.

The four-time major winner went on to beat Antonia Ruzic 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, and later explained the inspiration for her design.

“It’s modeled after a jellyfish,” Osaka said. “I’m just so grateful I get to do the things I love.”

Madison Keys had a tough start to her title defense, struggling early against the offbeat style of Oleksandra Oliynykova before advancing 7-6 (6), 6-1.

Ninth-seeded Keys, playing in her 50th Grand Slam tournament, trailed 4-0 before finding her rhythm.

“Obviously I was very nervous at the start,” Keys said. “As nervous as I was . . . I’m really glad to be back, and that I got through that match.”

Oliynykova's unorthodox shot-making and strong defense kept Keys off balance in the first set.

“I feel like that made things a little extra tricky,” Keys said. “I felt like at the end of the tiebreaker I really kind of found my game and then was able to carry that into the second set.”

Oliynykova gained a lot of attention with her unique body art and ink, and a printed message for Ukraine on a T-shirt she wore in her post-match news conference.

No. 5 Elena Rybakina and No. 10 Belinda Bencic advanced in straight sets, but two women’s seeds were ousted in straight sets early on Day 3, with Janice Tjen upsetting 2021 U.S. Open finalist Leylah Fernandez and Tereza Valentova beating Australia's Maya Joint.

Sloane Stephens, the 2017 U.S. Open champion who had to qualify the season-opening major, lost Karolina Pliskova 7-6 (7), 6-2.

In a match between left-handers, Ben Shelton, a semifinalist a year ago in Australia, overcame Ugo Humbert 6-3, 7-6 (2), 7-6 (5).

Shelton said it was one of the toughest first-round matches he could have faced, with No. 33 Humbert having the highest ranking of the unseeded players.

He'll next face Australian qualifier Dane Sweeny, who ended the 20th and final Australian Open campaign for 39-year-old Gael Monfils.

Also advancing were No. 5 Lorenzo Musetti, No. 9 Taylor Fritz, 2023 runner-up Stefanos Tsitsipas and Eliot Spizzirri, who beat 19-year-old Joao Fonseca 6-4, 2-6, 6-1, 6-2.

Naomi Osaka of Japan walks onto Rod Laver Arena for her first round match against Antonia Ruzic of Croatia at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)

Jannik Sinner of Italy serves to Hugo Gaston of France during their first round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)

Karolina Pliskova of Czech Republic plays a forehand return to Sloane Stephens of the U.S. during their first round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

Sloane Stephens of the U.S. plays a forehand return to Karolina Pliskova of Czech Republic during their first round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

Ben Shelton of the U.S. plays a forehand return to Ugo Humbert of France during their first round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)

Leylah Fernandez of Canada plays a forehand return to Janice Tjen of Indonesia during their first round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

Oleksandra Oliynykova of Ukraine plays a backhand return to Madison Keys of the U.S. during their first round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)

Madison Keys of the U.S. serves to Oleksandra Oliynykova of Ukraine during their first round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)

Madison Keys, right, of the U.S. is congratulated by Oleksandra Oliynykova of Ukraine following their first round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)

Madison Keys of the U.S. waves after defeating Oleksandra Oliynykova of Ukraine during their first round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)

RAQQA, Syria (AP) — The Syrian military claimed Tuesday that guards from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces had abandoned a camp in northeast Syria housing thousands of people linked to the Islamic State group, allowing the detainees to escape.

The al-Hol camp houses mainly women and children who are family members of IS members or accused of being otherwise affiliated with the group. Thousands of accused IS militants are separately housed in prisons in northeast Syria.

The SDF subsequently confirmed that its guards had withdrawn from the camp, blaming “international indifference toward the issue of the ISIS terrorist organization and the failure of the international community to assume its responsibilities in addressing this serious matter,” using another abbreviation for IS.

It said its forces had redeployed “in the vicinity of cities in northern Syria that are facing increasing risks and threats” from government forces.

Representatives of the U.S. military did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Earlier Tuesday, Syria's ministry of interior said Tuesday that 120 Islamic State members escaped from a prison in northeast Syria a day earlier, amid clashes between government forces and the SDF, which guards the prison.

Security forces recaptured 81 of the escapees, “while intensive security efforts continue to pursue the remaining fugitives and take the necessary legal measures against them,” the statement said.

The SDF and the government have traded blame over the escape from a prison in the town of Shaddadeh, amid the breakdown of a ceasefire deal between the two sides.

Also Tuesday, the SDF accused “Damascus-affiliated factions” of cutting off water supplies to the al-Aqtan prison near the city of Raqqa, which it called a “blatant violation of humanitarian standards.”

The SDF, the main U.S.-backed force that fought IS in Syria, controls more than a dozen prisons in the northeast where some 9,000 IS members have been held for years without trial. Many of the detained extremists are believed to have carried out atrocities in Syria and Iraq after IS declared a caliphate in June 2014 over large parts of Syria and Iraq.

IS was defeated in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria two years later, but the group’s sleeper cells still carry out deadly attacks in both countries.

Under a deal announced Sunday, government forces were to take over control of the prisons from the SDF, but the transfer did not go smoothly.

On Monday, Syrian government forces and SDF fighters clashed around two prisons housing members of the Islamic State group in Syria’s northeast.

The clashes came as SDF chief commander Mazloum Abdi was said to be in Damascus to attempt to solidify a ceasefire deal reached Sunday that ended days of deadly fighting during which government forces captured wide areas of northeast Syria from the SDF.

Abdi issued no statement after the meeting and the SDF later issued a statement calling for “all of our youth” to “join the ranks of the resistance," appearing to signal that the deal had fallen apart.

Interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa postponed a planned trip to Germany Tuesday amid the ongoing tensions in northeast Syria.

Since toppling Bashar Assad in December 2024, Syria’s new leaders have struggled to assert their full authority over the war-torn country. An agreement was reached in March that would merge the SDF with Damascus, but it didn’t gain traction.

Earlier this month, clashes broke out in the city of Aleppo, followed by the government offensive that seized control of Deir el-Zour and Raqqa provinces, critical areas under the SDF that include oil and gas fields, river dams along the Euphrates and border crossings.

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Sewell reported from Beirut.

Tribal fighters pose for photographs with local children after Syrian government troops, supported by tribal forces, took control of Raqqa from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) last Sunday at Al-Naeem roundabout in central Raqqa, northeastern Syria, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

Tribal fighters pose for photographs taken by onlookers after Syrian government troops, supported by allied tribal forces, took control of Raqqa from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) last Sunday at Al-Naeem roundabout in central Raqqa, northeastern Syria, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

Soldiers of the Kurdish-led, U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) deploy with armoured military vehicles to secure roads leading to Gweiran Prison which houses men accused of being an Islamic State (ISIS) fighters in Hassakeh, northeastern Syria, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad)