Clinical Zhang & Mladenovic go through to round of 16 in women's doubles at Australian Open

China's Zhang Shuai and her French partner Kristina Mladenovic defeated Peyton Stearns of the USA and Luisa Stefani of Brazil in straight sets 6-2, 6-2 to reach the women's doubles round of 16 at the Australian Open in Melbourne, Australia, on Saturday.

The Chinese and French duo were perfect in the big moments in the match, converting all four of their break point chances – as well as their first set and match points – while successfully denying all seven break point opportunities by Stearns and Stefani.

Among those seven chances, four came in the first game of the match – an 18-minute thriller off the serve of Zhang that went to deuce 10 times – before Zhang and Mladenovic closed it out with consecutive winners.

After the marathon opening game, the rest of the set took just 34 minutes, with a Mladenovic backhand winner down the line off a second serve from Stefani converting the first set point.

Stefani's serve was broken again early in the second set, as Zhang and Mladenovic grabbed a 3-1 lead.

Leading 4-2 with Mladenovic serving, another long game saw five deuces lead up to Zhang's volley winner, which finally put it to rest after nine minutes.

In the next game, Mladenovic set up the first match point with a volley of her own, and Zhang converted it with a forehand winner up the middle between Stearns and Stefani.

Zhang and Mladenovic hit 20 winners in the contest, compared to just eight for their opponents.