Elina Svitolina produced an accomplished performance to see off the challenge of talented Slovakian Viktoria Kuzmova 6-4 6-1 and book her place in the third round.
The Ukrainian, 24, won the biggest event of her career at the WTA Finals in October last year, and she would love to follow that success with a first Grand Slam title in Melbourne.
Svitolina did not dominate to begin with against Kuzmova. The Slovakian served well and showcased her array of big groundstrokes as they shared the first four games.
The World No.6 then played some superb points to hold to love and earn three break points. However, the young Slovakian stayed calm and hit some a series of very good serves to fight back and secure an important hold.
In the ninth game, Kuzmova had her only chances to break in the whole match. Unfortunately for her, she was unable to convert any of the three break points.
At this stage, a tie-break looked likely, but Svitolina earned another chance to break and this time she took it when she drew a backhand error from her opponent to close out the set 6-4.
The second set was much simpler for the Ukrainian. She held serve with ease and broke in the fourth and sixth games to win it 6-1 in just 27 minutes.
“I played really confidently all match so I’m very pleased with my performance,” Svitolina said in her post-match interview.
Svitolina hoping to build on WTA Finals success
“It was amazing for me to win (the WTA Finals) and go undefeated throughout,” she said. “It definitely brought me a lot of confidence and showed I can play at a really high level all week, so I’m just trying to transfer this to the Grand Slams.”
Admittedly, the Australian Open draw has been kind to the Ukrainian so far. She has faced the World No.104 and the World No.46 and will now face either Shuai Zhang (World No.40) or Kristyna Pliskova (World No.101) in the third round.
However, she deserves praise for the clinical and efficient way she has dispatched her first two opponents, and this sets her up perfectly for the rest of the tournament.
Pliskova fights back to make it through to last 32
Karolina Pliskova raised her game after a lacklustre first set to beat Madison Brengle 4-6 6-1 6-0 and set up a third round meeting with Camila Giorgi, who thrashed qualifier Iga Swiatek 6-2 6-0.
“This match had a little of everything,” the Czech said in her post-match interview. “Some breaks, some good tennis, some bad mistakes from me. The first set was not very good from my side but she played some good points and was very solid.”
Pliskova continued, “She defended pretty well from the baseline so it sometimes pretty tough to close out the points, but I’m happy that I did it in the end.”
