The two finalists from a year ago managed some second-round drama Down Under.
Defending champion Naomi Osaka overcame swirling winds, while two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova saved three set points in the second set to advance to the third round of the Australian Open on Tuesday.
Third-seeded Osaka to beat Zheng Saisai 6-2, 6-4, but also became upset with herself at times. After having her service broken in the second set Osaka threw her racket to the ground, tossed a ball from her hand and kicked the racket along the court. She then sat in her court-side chair with a towel over her head. But she rallied back and clinched the match when Zheng double-faulted on match point.
Osaka said the best part about winning over Zheng was how she was able to deal with all the emotions.
“I hope you guys like the tennis that’s coming after my match,” third-seeded Osaka said, “because it wasn’t that pretty.”
Seventh-seeded Kvitova, who lost last year’s final here to Osaka, beat Paula Badosa 7-5, 7-5 after she rallied from 0-40 down in the 10th game of the second set to hold serve and then broke in the next game to regain control of the match.
Because of suspended matches from rain on Monday, eight first-round women’s singles matches were not completed Tuesday. That meant Osaka and Kvitova had advanced to the third round before some of those players had finished their first.
Also advancing to the third round were No. 1-seeded Ash Barty, No. 14 Sofia Kenin, No. 18 Alison Riske, No. 25 Ekaterina Alexandrova and Julia Goerges, who beat 13th-seeded Petra Martic 4-6, 6-3, 7-5.
In first-round matches, 31-year-old Carla Suarez Navarro upset 11th-seeded Aryna Sabalenka 7-6 (6), 7-6 (6), and Taylor Townsend beat fellow American Jessica Pegula 6-4, 7-6 (5) to move into a second-rounder against No. 30 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
On the men’s side, Rafael Nadal’s was impressive with his 6-2, 6-3, 6-0 win over Hugo Dellien in the first round.
That was built with a 38-15 edge in winners and breaks in eight of Dellien’s 11 service games.
Nadal, at age 33 the oldest No. 1 in ATP history, owns 19 major championships.
Sixth-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas got a walkover into the third round when his Philipp Kohlschreiber pulled out of their match because a muscle strain.
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