The bedrock of our sport was nowhere to be found as Serena Williams defeated Belinda Bencic 6-4 6-3 in the opening round of Australian Open 2017 on Tuesday.

Williams blasted 30 winners, paying total disregard to the age-old mantra of building the point with shot tolerance, and making your opponent hit one more ball.

Williams simply didn't want Bencic to hit the ball at all.

There were 117 points in the match, and very few conformed to the traditional back-and-forth chess match built upon putting the ball in the court first, and then outworking your opponent.

More than 80 percent of total points in the match had a maximum of just two shots for each player, as Williams and Bencic played their own version of blast winners first, and ask questions later.

The rally length metrics from the match were simply astounding.

Rally length (shots made)

0-4 shots = 83 percent (97)

5-8 shots = 15 percent (17)

9+ shots = 2 percent (3)

The opening point of the match featured seven shots. It was nothing but a tease. There would only be one point for the rest of the first set that was longer.

Williams got the better of the 0-4 rally length, commonly known as ‘first strike’ winning it 52-45. She also dominated the mid-length 5-8 shot rally length 11-6, and won the extended rallies of 9 shots or more two to one. There were only two rallies for the entire match that reached double-digits.

The biggest shot on the court was Williams’ forehand, racking up 16 winners while yielding 18 unforced errors. Bencic simply could not hang from that side, only hitting three forehand winners, while making nine forehand unforced errors.

What’s fascinating is that Williams won slightly less than 50 percent of her baseline points (27 of 55 for 49 percent) in winning the match, and won seven of eight times she ventured forward to the net.

Bencic did all she could to stay with her more powerful opponent, but when the bigger moments arrived, it was Williams who seized the momentum. With Bencic serving at 30-30 or Deuce, she only won three of 10 points for the match, while Williams won four of five when serving at those critical junctures. These kinds of points act like a bridge, helping you immensely along your journey to win each game and the match.

Williams blasted a hole through the idea that you need to be consistent first to win at the elite level, and she also took square aim that running is a critical component as well.

Williams amazingly averaged running just six metres per point. That was less than half what Andy Murray averaged (12.3 metres) in his opening-round victory on Monday against Illya Marchenko.

Making balls and running all over the court are clearly not the only way to get the job done at a Grand Slam level. It’s important to note than only three rallies out of 117 required a player to put a fifth consecutive ball in the court.

Overall, Williams dominated the shorter rallies, but also had an early stranglehold on the longer ones too. In the opening set, Williams won all eight rallies that saw a minimum of three balls land in the court.

Consistency is squarely under attack at Melbourne Park.

Craig O’Shannessy / Australian Open