Yang/Chan into Australian Open women's doubles quarters

MELBOURNE - Yang Zhaoxuan and her partner Chan Hao-ching on Monday progressed into the women's doubles quarterfinals of the Australian Open with a straight-set win.

Facing off Ukraine's Anhelina Kalinina and Belgium's Alison Van Uytvanck in John Cain Arena, the 11th-seeded duo clinched four straight games from 1-0 down and took the opening set at 6-3.

Both pairs managed to survive their serving games in the following set until Yang and Chan broke their opponents in the 11th game and eventually emerged victorious 7-5 after one hour and 40 minutes.

This marked the first time world No 10 doubles player Yang has reached the quarterfinals of the Australian Open since she started playing the Grand Slam event in 2015, while Chan made a semifinal appearance in the 2020 edition.

Earlier, China's Zhang Shuai crashed out of the women's singles with a crisp 6-0, 6-4 loss to Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic.

Leading 7-0 in their head-to-head series, the 30th-seeded and world No. 31 Pliskova fired six aces and 15 winners, stunning world No 22 Zhang with the first-set win in 21 minutes.

In the second set, Zhang broke Karolina in the sixth game. But Pliskova came back with winning four games in a row.

"I just try my best, but I'm feeling really tired from yesterday and day before the match. I am happy I reached the fourth round, but right now I really need some rest," Zhang told reporters after the match.

This year's Australian Open posted a physically-demanding test for Zhang, who celebrated her 34th birthday on Saturday. Due to rain delays, her first-round singles were rescheduled to day three, from which Zhang had to appear on court every day to play women's singles, women's doubles and mixed doubles.