China's Zhang Shuai scored a major upset after beating 26th seed Dominika Cibulkova in three-sets to advance to the second round on Tuesday. The world number 41 now has a chance to equal her best-ever grand slam performance, which came at Melbourne Park in 2016, when she reached the quarter-finals.
Earlier, Zhang took a 2-game lead in the first set when she broke Cilbulkova's serve when the Slovakian hit the net. The Chinese won the opening set 6-2 when, once again, her opponent failed to clear the ball out from her side of the court.
But, she came back strongly to level the second at 4 with an ace before leveling the contest with a 6-4 win when Zhang fired out of bounds.
The 29-year-old from Tianjin then broke in the second game of the third set and then again at the match point as Cilbulkova hit wide.
Zhang won with the score-line of 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 and will face Karolina Pliskova next.
Wang Yafan of China plays a forehand in her second round match against Ashleigh Barty of Australia during day three of the 2019 Australian Open at Melbourne Park. /VCG Photo
Earlier today, China's Wang Yafan went down 6-2, 6-3 against Australia's top-ranked player Ashleigh Barty in the second round of the Australian Open 2019 at Rod Laver Arena today. 15th seeded Barty, who was a finalist at last week's Sydney International, beating No. 1-ranked Simona Halep along the way, has now advanced to third round.
Barty broke her Chinese opponent twice to take the first set 6-2. In the second set, Wang broke in the third game, but that was her only break, as the highest ranked local player served her way to victory to enter the next round, with 7 Aces.
The 22-year-old will now play Greece's Maria Sakkari. Incidentally, no Australian man or woman has won the singles title at their home Grand Slam since the 1970s.
Meanwhile, top seed Simona Halep came from a set down to get past Estonia's Kaia Kanepi, who took the opener 7-6 with a drop shot. The Romanian began on the back foot against her big-hitting opponent and after an early trade of break of serves, Halep finally won a rally to level at 6-4.
Halep was then at match point as the 33-year-old Kanepi hit long and the 2018 French Open champion sealed the match 6-7, 6-4, 6-2 to advance to the next round. She will now face American Sofia Kenin. In another match of the day, 5th seed Sloane Stephens defeated Timea Babos in two sets, Aliak-Sandra Sasnovich upset 20th seed Anett Kontaveit and the 19th seeded Caroline Garcia got past Zoe Hives.