World No.2 Aryna Sabalenka has 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 women's seeds early at the Australian Open.
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 heading the same way, when she double-faulted six times in her opening service game.
Her 12th double fault handed Chinese world No.100 Wang the opening set, but although the services errors continued, the Belarussian battled back to even up the contest on Rod Laver Arena.
Sabalenka had to rely on the rest of her game to keep her out of trouble, as the double faults kept coming - 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 says. "This kind of mentality helped me to stay in the game and actually find my serve."
Sabalenka served up 12 double faults, as she came from a set down in her first-round match against local wild card Storm Sanders. She will now face 2019 French Open finalist Marketa Vondrousova in the third round.
"It's another tough opponent, I've played great matches against her," says Sabalenka.
Iga Swiatek will await Sabalenka in the quarter-finals, if they both get that far and she was the only top seeds in early action to come through her match without any issues on Thursday.
The seventh-seeded former French Open champion confirmed her strong form by swatting aside Rebecca Peterson 6-2 6-2 on John Cain Arena.
"Just starting the match with a confidence was pretty important for me," the Pole says. "I felt like I was dominating from the beginning.
"After getting few breaks, it was much, much easier to go forward."
Reuters
