World number one Rafa Nadal eased to a second round victory at the Australian Open while third seed Grigor Dimitrov was made to work hard to advance in a five-set thriller against American Mackenzie McDonald.
Rafa Nadal Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Top seed Nadal beat Argentine Leonardo Mayer 6-3 6-4 7-6(4) and will face Bosnia's Damir Dzumhur in the next round while Bulgarian Dimitrov had to dig deep to carve out a 4-6 6-2 6-4 0-6 8-6 victory over unseeded qualifier McDonald.
Caroline Wozniacki staged an impressive comeback from the brink of defeat to earn a victory over Croatia's Jana Fett and progress to the last 32 of the women's draw and will be joined by Ukrainian Elina Svitolina and Jelena Ostapenko.
France's Alize Cornet handed 12th-seed Julia Goerges a surprise defeat to snap the German's 15-game winning streak and set up a third round clash with Belgian Elise Mertens, who beat 23rd-seed Daria Gavrilova.
Seed slayers Belinda Bencic and Zhang Shuai, who ousted Venus Williams and Sloane Stephens in the opening round, were knocked out by Thai qualifier Luksika Kumkhum and Czech Republic's Denisa Allertova respectively.
Home favourite Nick Kyrgios, sixth-seeded Marin Cilic and Britain's Kyle Edmund also sealed progression to the third round of men's draw.
Belgian Elise Mertens knocked out 23rd-seeded Australian Daria Gavrilova with a 7-5 6-3 win to reach the next stage, where she will face France's Alize Cornet.
World number three Dimitrov held his nerve in a fiercely-contested five-set thriller against American 186th-ranked qualifier Mackenzie McDonald to win 4-6 6-2 6-4 0-6 8-6 and set up a third round clash against Russian Andrey Rublev.
Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov knocked out Australian Matthew Ebden with a 7-6(0) 6-3 6-4 win to progress to the third round for the first time since 2012.
Russian youngster Rublev earned a tough 6-4 6-7(7) 6-4 6-2 win over Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus to reach the third round at Melbourne Park for the first time.
Home favourite Kyrgios, seeded 17th, fired 17 aces to see off Serbian Viktor Troicki 7-5 6-4 7-6(2) in the second round. He will next face 15th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
World number two Caroline Wozniacki roared back from 5-1 down in the final set, saving two match points, to beat Croatian Jana Fett 3-6 6-2 7-5.
"I'm very proud of the way I came back. I just tried to mentally stay focused. It was very hard, and she was playing well," Wozniacki said after the match.
"All of a sudden seeing myself down, almost out of the tournament, I started playing better and started playing the tennis that I wanted to play.
-Reuters
