Chinese star Zheng through to Australian Open third round for first time

Chinese tennis star Zheng Qinwen is into the third round at the Australian Open for the first time.

Zheng, the 12th seed and China's top-ranked singles player, beat England's Katie Boulter 6-3, 6-3 in one hour and 35 minutes in their 2024 Australian Open second round match at Melbourne Park on Thursday evening.

It means that the 21-year-old Zheng has advanced to the third round at the Australian Open for the first time in her career after losing second round matches at the tournament in 2022 and 2023.

Despite making only 35 percent of her first serves and hitting four more unforced errors than her opponent, Zheng won the opening set in 39 minutes, breaking Boulter's serve three times in the process.

The Chinese number one overcame her service issues during the break, hitting all seven of her aces for the match in the second set and putting 65 percent of her first serves in play compared to Boulter's 42 percent.

Serving for the match in an epic 17-minute final game, Zheng saw off six break point opportunities for Boulter before converting her sixth match point opportunity with an ace to claim victory.

Zheng will play either fellow Chinese player Wang Yafan or Emma Raducanu, the 2021 US Open champion, in the third round.