China's No. 1 Zheng Qinwen through to second round at Australian Open

China's top-ranked tennis player, Zheng Qinwen, has advanced to the second round at the Australian Open.

Zheng overcame losing the first set to beat America's Ashlyn Krueger 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 on Tuesday night at Melbourne Park - where she is the 12th seed for the first Grand Slam of 2024.

It is the third consecutive year that Zheng, 21, has won her first round match at the Australian Open and comes off a run to the quarterfinals at the 2023 US Open.

Zheng hit 12 aces during the match, nine more than Krueger, and 11 more winners than her opponent, as well as 12 fewer unforced errors.

The Chinese broke first to take a 3-2 lead in the first set but Krueger immediately leveled the score. In a dramatic 17-minute game, the American again broke serve to take a 5-3 lead and served out the first set.

Zheng again broke first in the second set and did not relent, winning the second set in 37 minutes.

Krueger had a break point chance in the opening game of the decider but was denied by an ace from Zheng, who went on to a 3-1 lead before Krueger broke back and drew level at 3-3.

However, Zheng again took control of the game and won three consecutive games to seal the match in two hours and 18 minutes.

"I started the match quite slow, but obviously the opponent was serving really good. She had a strong first serve and then fast second serve, so that was difficult. I was struggling by being broken by her. That [eighth game] was a really long game. Then I lost that game. The set just went quickly for her," Zheng said at the post-match conference, speaking of her first-set loss.

"But I'm so happy I was able to stay focused and try to find a way [to win], even if I was not feeling that good today, and to try to keep my tennis being better on," she noted.

Zheng will now face Katie Boulter in the second round, after the Englishwoman beat China's Yuan Yue earlier on Tuesday.