The Lyonnaise had the last word in a duel of waitresses where the restarters were not at the party. The world No. 19 broke the two-time winner's serve in Melbourne in the fifth game of the first set. She closed out the first set with a service winner, without having to save any break points. Still as formidable on her serves (89% of points won behind her firsts, 13 aces), the former world number 4 perfectly negotiated the tiebreak of the second set, won 7-2.
To discover
- Australian Open: women's schedule and results
- Australian Open: men's schedule and results
After a break of more than a year, the four-time Grand Slam winner, who had fallen beyond 800th in the world and lacked her bearings, came up against a more solid Garcia on the important points. The French tennis leader, who reached the 8th finalist last year in Melbourne, will face Poland's Magdalena Frech, who defeated Australia's Saville in the first round (6-7 6-3 7-5) in the second round.
Quickly done, well done. French number two Varvara Gracheva also outclassed Belgium's Yanina Wickmayer (6-2, 6-4). Less success for Fiona Ferro. Coming out of the qualifiers, the native of Libramont, gave up her arms against the American McCarney Kessler (3-6, 6-3, 6-2) with no less than 40 unforced errors...