Preview: Australian Open: Olga Danilovic vs. Venus Williams - prediction, form, head-to-head

After a five-year absence, Venus Williams returns to Melbourne Park on Sunday as she takes on Olga Danilovic in the first round of the Australian Open.

The seven-time Slam winner could face Coco Gauff in a mouthwatering battle of generations in the second round, but she must come through her Ukrainian opponent to advance to a round-two matchup with her compatriot.

Match preview

The evergreen Venus will return to the hard courts of Melbourne on Sunday after five years, aiming to progress to the second round of the first Major of the year.

The 45-year-old's preparation for the Slam has been far from ideal, losing to Magda Linette and Tatjana Maria in Auckland and Hobart, respectively, with the match against Maria setting a record for opponents with the highest combined ages (84 years, one day) on the WTA Tour.

Losing to Maria extended Williams’s overall losing streak on the tour; the seven-time Slam champion has not secured a victory since defeating Peyton Stearns in Washington six months ago.

While the 49-time titleholder and two-time Melbourne finalist still demonstrates the top-level execution that elevated her to the top of the women's game in her prime years, age has undeniably limited her potential for further progress.

This leaves her facing a tough challenge to avoid exiting in the first round in Australia for the third time in her last five appearances — after losing to Belinda Bencic in 2018 and Gauff in 2020 — as the wild card aims to set up another Slam match with Gauff in the second round.

Beating Danilovic, 21 years her junior, will be far from easy, especially as the Serbian player enters the opening Slam of 2026 after reaching the quarter-finals in Hobart.

The former world No. 32 recently defeated two American women — McCartney Kessler and Stearns — en route to the quarter-finals at the pre-Aussie Open event before falling to Antonia Ruzic, and she seeks another victory over a player from the USA on Sunday.

Despite the disappointment of exiting in Hobart so close to the semi-finals, it was a decent run for Danilovic, considering she had not played since October’s WTA event in Osaka, where she also lost in the quarter-finals.

Now aiming to beat a former Slam champion, the 24-year-old, who reached the fourth round last year, hopes to avoid a first-round exit against her experienced opponent.

Although this year marks only her third appearance at Melbourne Park, her previous entries have never ended with a tournament-opening defeat, and she is determined to maintain that record at the expense of one of the greatest women to hold a racquet.

Head To Head

Both women will be facing off for the first time on the tour, with the winner to take a 1-0 lead in their head-to-head.

While Williams holds a 54-21 record heading into this year's Aussie Open — a win rate of 72% — the Serbian player carries a win-loss record of 4-2 into Sunday's round-one contest, magnifying the chasm in experience between both players.

We say: Danilovic to win in two sets

Despite the sentiment of wanting a Williams-Gauff second-round match, it is hard to objectively make a case for the 45-year-old winning on Sunday.

As a result, Danilovic should get the better of the seven-time Slam champion and advance to a second-round match at Melbourne Park for the third time.