CHINA’S Zheng Qinwen, Wang Qian and Wang Xiyu have all progressed to the second round of the Australian Open after winning their day-one matches. Zheng was first up among the three. She won her nail-biting 3-set match in a tiebreaker against Belarusian Aliaksandra Sasnovich on Monday afternoon. The 19-year-old broke out strong in the first set, winning 6-3, however, she appeared to struggle in the second set after being broken repeatedly before a 6-1 result to Sasnovich. Zheng managed to return to form during the third and final set, and after a gruelling nearly two-and-a-half hours, she tied up the match in a tiebreaker which she won 10-5. Zheng has been placed against Greek World No. 8 Maria Sakkari in her second round scheduled for today. Despite being of higher rank, Zheng defeated Sakkari the last time they met in 2019. Next up, playing on Melbourne’s Margaret Court Arena, world No. 110 Wang Qiang pulled ahead in straight sets against U.S. World No. 16 Cori Gauff. The final score was 6-4, 6-2. Wang drove her momentum throughout the match, taking advantage of Gauff’s error-prone forehand. She managed to tie up the match in just one hour and 13 minutes. “I lost two times against her last year so I just tried my best and focus on the court,” said Wang after the match. In the second round today, Wang will be facing World No. 56 Alison Van Uytvanck from Belgium. Finally, to close out the hat-trick for China, World No. 139 Wang Xiyu defeated Slovakian World No. 160 Viktoria Kuzmova 7-5, 6-3. In Round Two, Wang Xiyu will have her work cut out for her when she faces Czech World No. 4 Barbora Krejcikova, who dominated German player Andrea Petkovic in her round-one match. (Xinhua) | 