Naomi Osaka and Elina Svitolina continue progress at Australian Open
Thursday 17 January 2019 09:54, UK
US Open champion Naomi Osaka and WTA Finals winner Elina Svitolina both advanced to the third round of the Australian Open on Thursday.
Osaka was made to work in the second set before coming through 6-2 6-4 against Tamara Zidansek in the second round of the Australian Open.
The fourth seed was a break down at 4-2 against 21-year-old Slovenian Zidansek but recovered with a run of four games in a row, saving two break points in the final game.
Osaka next faces the tricky Hsieh Su-wei, who is again having a good run a year after defeating Stefanie Voegele and Laura Siegemund to reach the third round.
Sixth-seeded Svitolina also made it through at Melbourne Park after kicking off proceedings at Rod Laver Arena with a 6-4 6-1 win over Viktoria Kuzmova.
"I was trying to be light on my feet and be really quick and I think this was the key today," she said.
Things were not great on court for Svitolina for much of 2018 until the final week of the year, when she defeated five top-10 opponents to win the biggest title of her career at the WTA Finals.
For a player who has struggled to produce her best at the Grand Slams, it was a timely reminder of what she can achieve.
Svitolina said: "I found my mindset, what I have to find every match, the way I have to act, the way I have to be on a court.
"It's not easy but to be a top player, to be consistently good, you have to always be at the top of your game and that showed me at the WTA Finals that I can do that. I'm always going to try to find this zone where I'm playing my great tennis and I'm there."
The Ukrainian will next play Czech seventh-seed Karolina Pliskova after she came through in three sets against American Madison Brengle, winning 4-6 6-1 6-0.
Madison Keys, Elise Mertens, Anastasia Sevastova and Camila Giorgi were amongst the other seeded names to progress, 13th seed Sevastova was the only one of those to drop a set before eventually prevailing against Bianca Andrescu.
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