China's Wei Sijia reaches final round of Australian Open qualifying

China's Wei Sijia is one win away from making the women's singles main draw at the Australian Open after winning her second-round qualifying match on Wednesday.

World No. 119 Wei beat Germany's Tamara Korpatsch 6-3, 6-3 in one hour and 18 minutes. The victory gave her the opportunity to reach the main draw at a Grand Slam for the first time with a win in the third and final round against Serbian world No. 237 Nina Stojanovic on Thursday.

Wei won 63 percent of her service points compared to Korpatsch's 49 percent, and hit 20 winners compared to 10 for the German.

It is the second straight year the 21-year-old has reached the third qualifying round at the Australian Open after falling in the final round in 2024.

Gao Xinyu of China was beaten by Croatian veteran Petra Martic 3-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4 in two hours and 38 minutes in the second round.

Gao, who reached a career-high No. 146 after leading China to the quarterfinals at the United Cup, led the deciding set 2-0 but could not capitalize on the advantage.

Martic, the 16th seed in the qualifying tournament, leveled the score at 2-2, before again breaking Gao's serve at 4-4 and serving out the match.