MELBOURNE, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- Along with a host of strong results in the first round of the Australian Open doubles bracket, there was also some big victories for a number of Chinese singles competitors on Thursday.
Second round action in the women's singles saw Zhang Shuai earn a straight-sets victory over Czech competitor Kristyna Pliskova 6-3, 7-5, while Wang Qiang closed out Serbian talent Aleksandra Krunic 6-2, 6-3.
Chinese Taipei's Hsieh Su-wei also found her way into the third round of the tournament with a masterful performance against Laura Siegemund, outworking the German 6-3, 6-4.
In the doubles bracket, Wang Qiang found more success when she teamed up with 19-year-old emerging star Jiang Xinyu against France's Pauline Parmentier and Greek youngster Maria Sakkari.
Despite being less experienced than their European counterparts, the Chinese duo were sharp at the net and returned serve well to take the match in straight sets 6-3, 6-4.
Although things were tougher for China's Han Xinyun and her Croatian partner Darija Jurak, the pair managed to make it through the first round of the tournament in a nail-biting three-set thriller against Latvia's Anastasija Sevastova and Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
Down in the first set after an epic tie-break, Han and Jurak fought back to snatch the second set and close the match out in the third, winning the battle 7-6 (4), 3-6, 4-6.
In other matches, China's Peng Shuai and Yang Zhaoxuan weren't so lucky against Australia's Ashley Barty and Belarusian hitter Victoria Azarenka, losing the gripping three-setter 5-7, 6-4, 7-5, while Xu Yifan and her Canadian teammate Gabriela Dabrowski lost out to the Czech duo of Marketa Vondrousova and Barbora Strycova 2-6, 6-3, 6-3.
China's Duan Yingying and her Belarusian partner Vera Lapko also narrowly missed out on the second round, going down to Latvia's Jelena Ostapenko and Sorana Cirstea of Romania 2-6, 7-6 (7-3), 6-7 (7-9).
