Riske wins again

Wins in straight sets to reach 3rd round

Peters Township’s Alison Riske is on to third round after convincing win.

MELBOURNE, Australia — Alison Riske rolled to a straight-set, 6-3, 6-1 win Tuesday against China’s Lin Zhu to advance to the third round of the Australian Open.

Riske, a Peters Township native, will face Germany’s Julia Goerges, who upset No. 13 seed Petra Martic, 4-6, 6-3, 7-5, as she tries to advance the furthest in the Grand Slam event in her career. Riske, an 18-seed this year, has advanced to the third round of the Australian Open twice (2014, 2017).

Her best Grand Slam performance was a trip to the Wimbledon quarterfinals last year.

If Riske beats Goerges, she could possibly face topseed Ash Barty of Australia in the fourth round.

Defending champion Naomi Osaka threw her racket, tossed a ball and kicked the racket again for good measure, before sitting for a while with a towel over her head. She then pulled it together quickly in a swirling breeze on Margaret Court Arena and beat Zheng Saisai, 6-2, 6-4, to advance to the third round.

On the adjoining show court at about the same time, 2019 runner-up Petra Kvitova held her composure when she faced three set points before winning 13 of the next 15 points to beat Paula Badosa, 7-5, 7-5.

Both of last year’s finalists had secured spots in the third round before some of the women hadn’t completed their first-round matches in the singles draw. A backlog caused by heavy rain on day one, caused a further spillover on day two.

Osaka was unimpressed with her performance.

“I hope you guys like the tennis that’s coming after my match,” third-seeded Osaka told the crowd in an on-court interview, “because it wasn’t that pretty.”

Osaka won back-to-back majors at the U.S. Open in 2018 and Australia last year.

Also advancing to the third round were No. 1 seed Ash Barty, No. 14 Sofia Kenin, No. 25 Ekaterina Alexandrova and 2018 champion Caroline Wozniacki, who will retire after the tournament.

In first-round matches, 31year-old Carla Suarez Navarro, a three-time quarterfinalist in Australia, upset 11th-seeded Aryna Sabalenka, 7-6 (6), 7-6 (6), and Taylor Townsend beat fellow American Jessica Pegula, 64, 7-6 (5), to move into a second-rounder against No. 30 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.