World number two Aryna Sabalenka survived a complete service meltdown to rally for a 1-6 6-4 6-2 victory over Wang Xinyu and avoid joining an exodus of top women's seeds on Thursday at the Australian Open.
Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Taking to court just after third seed Garbine Muguruza and sixth seed Anett Kontaveit had crashed out of the second round, Sabalenka looked to be going the same way when she double-faulted six times in her opening service game.
Sabalenka had to rely on the rest of her game to keep her out of trouble as the double faults kept coming - there were 19 in all over the match - but ultimately progressed when Wang went long with a forehand.
"I already had a lot of experience playing without the serve so I was just telling myself 'you have enough shots to still win the match even if you cannot serve'," Sabalenka said.
"This kind of mentality helped me to stay in the game and actually find my serve."
Sabalenka, who served up 12 double faults as she came from a set down in her first round match against local wild card Storm Sanders on Tuesday, will face 2019 French Open finalist Marketa Vondrousova in the third round.
Iga Swiatek will be waiting for Sabalenka in the quarter-finals if they both get that far and she was the only one of the top seeds in early action on Thursday to come through her match without any issues.
The seventh-seeded former French Open champion confirmed her strong form by swatting aside Rebecca Peterson 6-2 6-2.
Meanwhile, world number three Garbine Muguruza blamed a COVID-19 outbreak within her support team for disrupting her preparations for the first Grand Slam of the season.
The former Wimbledon and French Open champion, who reached the final of the Australian Open in 2020, was soundly beaten 6-3 6-3 on Rod Laver Arena in her second round clash with unseeded Frenchwoman Alize Cornet.
"It's been a pretty stressful start of the year also with my team," said Muguruza. "They all got COVID before coming here. We were for 15 days apart.
"It was hard for me for the preparation to come to the Aussie, swing and play and perform well. That was tricky a little bit.
"Physically here I wasn't also feeling my best. It was a kind of stressful start of the year."
Cornet advanced to the third round for the first time since 2018 and will face either Britain's Heather Watson or Tamara Zidansek from Slovenia.
Estonian player Kontaveit suffered a 6-2 6-4 defeat to Danish teenager Clara Tauson.
The 19-year-old, with a world ranking of 39, set up a third round clash against 30th-ranked American Danielle Collins.
- Reuters
