Australian Open: Karolina Pliskova, Garbine Muguruza begin with easy wins

Day two of womens singles action at the 2019 Australian Open saw the top-seeded women come through their opening rounds with ease. Opening the days play, American Madison Keys, the 17th seed crushed the home favourite, the 18-year-old Destanee Aiava in straight sets 6-2, 6-2.

Keys put up 24 winners, four times as many as Aiavas six and had 19 unforced errors to the Australian wild cards 23. Next up for Keys is another teenager, 17-year-old Anastasia Potapova. The Russian defeated Frenchwoman Pauline Parmentier in straight sets as well 6-4, 7-6(5).

The seventh seed Karolina Pliskova, too, won her first round in straight sets, against compatriot and qualifier Karolina Muchova, 6-3, 6-2. Pliskova had 21 winners and 15 unforced errors, and finished the match with 62 points to Muchovas 43.

Pliskova will play the winner of the match between American Madison Brengle, and Japanese qualifier Misaki Doi in the second round. 18th seed Garbine Muguruza almost raced past Saisai Zheng in their first-round match. The Spaniard, however, encountered some tough resistance from her Chinese opponent as she tried to close out the match at 5-1 in the second set.

However, while Zheng held serve to narrow the gap to 5-3, Muguruza made no mistakes while serving for the match the second time, closing it out in 75 minutes. For the second straight day, a British woman pulled off a thrilling win in the third-set 10-point tie-break.

Johanna Konta defeated Australian Ajla Tomljanovic in three sets, following the steps of compatriot Katie Boulter, who had defeated Ekaterina Makarova in the third-set tie-break on Monday. Konta will play Muguruza in the second round.

Serena Williams, too, started off strongly defeating German Tatjana Maria 6-0, 6-2 in her first-round match. She will play Eugenie Bouchard who defeated Shuai Peng in straight sets 6-2, 6-1 in their opener. Result_Start (17) Madison Keys (USA) d.

(WC) Destanee Aiava (AUS) 6-2, 6-2 (7) Karolina Pliskova (CZE) d. (Q) Karolina Muchova (CZE) 6-3, 6-2 (18) Garbine Muguruza (ESP) d. Saisai Zheng (CHN) 6-2, 6-3 Anastasia Potapova (RUS) d. Pauline Parmentier (FRA) 6-4, 7-6(5) (16) Serena Williams (USA) d.

Tatjana Maria (GER) 6-0, 6-2 (12) Elise Mertens (BEL) d. Anna Karolina Schmiedlova (SVK) 6-2, 7-5 (21) Qiang Wang (CHN) d. Fiona Ferro (FRA) 6-4, 6-3 Aleksandra Krunic (SRB) d. Zarina Diyas (KAZ) 3-6, 7-5, 6-1 Johanna Konta (GBR) d.

Ajla Tomljanovic (AUS) 7-6(4), 2-6, 7-6(7) (13) Anastasija Sevastova (LAT) d. Mona Barthel (GER) 6-3, 6-1 Eugenie Bouchard (CAN) d. (WC) Shuai Peng (CHN) 6-2, 6-1 Result_End