Teenage sensation Emerson Jones is remaining upbeat after enduring a grand slam baptism of fire, ousted from the Australian Open in a first-round mismatch against former Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina.
Australia's world No.1-ranked junior had hopes of fashioning a boilover but was instead sent packing from Melbourne Park with a 6-1 6-1 mauling from the tournament's sixth seed.
Ash Barty's pre-Open tip to win the women's title, Rybakina looked a player on a mission after entering the year's first grand slam with her former coach serving a provisional WTA suspension for alleged breach of its code of conduct.
Rybakina slammed the ban on the eve of the Open and took her anger out on 16-year-old Jones in a ruthless 53-minute showing on Margaret Court Arena.
The 2023 Open runner-up crunched 11 aces and 26 winners in an at-times unplayable display that former quarter-finalist Alicia Molik lauded as "poetry in motion".
"First match I'm always a bit nervous. She is very young and I think she has a great future and many more years on tour, but I'm pretty happy with my performance," Rybakina said.
For all her endeavour, Jones was mostly powerless to stop Rybakina in the opening set.
The free-hitting Kazakh clubbed 11 winners to Jones' one and broke the underdog twice to take the set in 26 minutes.
After a strong service hold to open the second set, Jones had a window of opportunity with Rybakina serving at 0-30 in the second game.
But, once again, the 2023 AO finalist stepped up to seize back control with a succession of searing winners.
Growing frustrated, the young wildcard Jones double-faulted on game point at 1-1 and paid the price as Rybakina reeled off two more winners before the underdog flayed a backhand wide.
It was more of the same when Jones dropped serve again in the fifth game as Rybakina took the wind out of the challenger's sails with an awesome display of ball-striking.
"I need to take out of it that it's exciting to see the top level, and that's probably what we're definitely going to work on when we get back," Jones said.
"We know the level now, so we know what we need to improve and we can just do that."
Rybakina urged the 2024 Australian Open and Wimbledon junior finalist to continue backing herself as she finds her feet in the professional ranks.
"Obviously just to try to work hard, listen to her team because I think she has great support and plenty of opportunities to play with great players," Rybakina said.
"She just needs to be patient and work hard."
Jones will be top seed in the Open junior girls' singles when it gets under way next week.
