Mirnyi/Youzhny battle through to Australian Open last 16

Max Mirnyi of Belarus and his partner Mikhail Youzhny of Russia celebrated their second victory at the Australian Open doubles on 17 January.

In the second round the Belarusian-Russian tandem had hard time to beat sixth-seeded Spanish duet of Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-3) in slightly more than two hours.

Max Mirnyi and Mikhail Youzhny claimed a 6-3, 7-6 (9-7) victory over Nicholas Monroe of the U.S. and Horacio Zeballos of Argentina in the opener on 16 January. 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).

Max Mirnyi will couple with Andrea Hlavackova of the Czech Republic in the tournament’s mixed doubles. In round one the fourth-seeded Belarusian-Czech pair will face Casey Dellacqua of Australia and Ross Hutchins of the U.K.

World number two Victoria Azarenka of Belarus will continue her Australian Open run on 18 January against Austria’s Yvonne Meusburger (World No.49). The two met only once – at the 2010 Andalucia Tennis Experience in Marbella. Victoria Azarenka then took an easy 6-3, 6-0 victory.

Victoria Azarenka started her Australian Open campaign with a 7-6 (7-2), 6-2 victory World No.91 Johanna Larsson and beat Barbora Zahlavova Strycova of the Czech Republic (84) 6-1, 6-4 to advance into the third round.

World No.90 Olga Govortsova of Belarus took a solid 6-0, 7-6 (8-6) victory over China’s Ying-Ying Duan (193) just to lose her round-two encounter to fifth seed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland 0-6, 5-7. 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.

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