Azarenka through to Australian Open round three

World number two Victoria Azarenka of Belarus progressed into the Australian Open round three taking a solid 6-1, 6-4 victory over Barbora Zahlavova Strycova of the Czech Republic (84).

The Belarusian took a complete control over the game from the very beginning taking just slightly over 30 minutes to win the opening set. As the Czech player continued to battle on in the second, Azarenka had to break twice to take a convincing victory in 88 minutes.

Victoria Azarenka will next face the winner of Serbia’s Bojana Jovanovski (World No.34) vs. Austria’s Yvonne Meusburger (49) match.

World No.90 Olga Govortsova of Belarus lost her round-two encounter 0-6, 5-7 to fifth seed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland. In the women’s doubles the Belarusian, coupled with U.S. Christina McHale, fell to Polish tandem Katarzyna Piter/Alicija Rosolska 3-6, 3-6.

Belarusian Max Mirnyi and Mikhail Youzhny of Russia got off to a good start at the tournament claiming a 6-3, 7-6 (9-7) victory over Nicholas Monroe of the U.S. and Horacio Zeballos of Argentina.

In round two Max Mirnyi and Mikhail Youzhny will face Spanish duet of Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez. In 2007 Max Mirnyi together with Sweden’s Jonas Bjorkman reached the Australian Open final just to fall to World No.1 team of Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan (the United States). In his professional career Max Mirnyi has won 48 doubles tournaments with different partners.

The 2014 Australian Open competitions on Melbourne Park courts will complete on 26 January.