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E-mail Xinhua, January 19, 2024
Two Chinese players will face off in the third round at the Australian Open after Wang Yafan won her second round match on Thursday night.
Wang, the world number 94, beat 2021 US Open champion Emma Raducanu 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 in a near-three hour epic to make the third round at Melbourne Park for the first time in her career.
She will play China's top-ranked player, 12th seed Zheng Qinwen, who won her own second round match in straight sets earlier on Thursday.
Zheng Qinwen of China hits a return during the women's singles second round match between Zheng Qinwen of China and Katie Boulter of Britain at the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne, Australia on Jan. 18, 2024. (Photo by Hu Jingchen/Xinhua)
Both Wang and Raducanu hit a similar number of winners in Thursday's match, but Wang hit 25 fewer unforced errors and was able to capitalize on her serve better, winning 67 percent of her first serve points compared to Raducanu's 58 percent.
Wang raced to a 5-2 lead in the opening set and closed it out with a forehand winner that caught the baseline.
From there the level of tennis escalated with five breaks of serve in a 65-minute second set where only one game was shorter than three minutes.
Wang immediately seized the momentum in the decider by breaking Raducanu's serve in the first game before successfully seeing off seven opportunities for the English player to break back and winning the match on her own serve.
It marks a third consecutive defeat in the Australian Open second round for Raducanu, who missed most of 2023 due to injury and required a medical timeout early in the third set on Thursday night.
