MELBOURNE, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- China's Wang Xiyu stormed into the Australian Open women's singles second round after blasting past Julia Grabher in straight sets on Tuesday.
Unleashing powerful groundstrokes, the left-handed Wang kick-started her tournament with 15 winners in the 6-1, 7-5 victory over 415th-ranked Grabher.
The 23-year-old has shown plenty of promise after a stellar junior career, reaching a high of 49 in the WTA rankings in January 2023. Her best Grand Slam performance was a third round appearance at the 2022 US Open.
But she slid down the rankings in 2024, falling in the first round at three of the four majors.
The 108th-ranked Wang, however, has started the Australian Open strongly in an early statement. She will play either eighth seed Emma Navarro or Peyton Stearns in the second round.
In sunny late morning conditions on the outside court, Wang started quickly with a break in the first game as errors flew off Grabher's racquet.
Wang's aggressive style from the baseline worked a flustered Grabher around the court and she grabbed a stranglehold of the first set after breaking again in the fifth game.
The tall Wang dominated on serve and a break in the seventh game wrapped up an almost flawless set in just 26 minutes.
Wang did not let up early in the second set and broke the despondent Austrian in the fourth game.
But she unexpectedly stumbled on serve and was broken in the fifth and seventh games, her fate sealed with a double fault.
Wang continued to struggle to land her serves and she was mired in double faults.
But Wang regrouped to finally end Grabher's resistance after an hour and 20 minutes as she pumped her fist in celebration. ■