Karolina Pliskova, Simona Halep and Elina Svitolina progressed into the third round of the Australian Open on another largely successful day for seeded players. Among rare seeds upset on Thursday was No.20 Karolina Muchova, who fell to Catherine Bellis, the American building a comeback from four arm surgeries.
Continuing her strong recent form, second seed Karolina Pliskova needed 86 minutes on Rod Laver Arena to get past Laura Siegemund 6-3 6-3 in what she called “an ugly match”, implying that the German’s game is very tricky and that she’ll never feel comfortable playing her.