Second seed Karolina Pliskova and fifth seed Elina Svitolina both fell to straight-set defeats in the third round of the Australian Open. Czech Pliskova, who won the Brisbane International in the build-up to the tournament, lost 7-6 (7-4) 7-6 (7-3) to Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Ukrainian Svitolina was thrashed 6-1 6-2 by resurgent two-time Grand Slam champion Garbine Muguruza of Spain. Former world number one Muguruza won the French Open in 2016 and Wimbledon a year later but has struggled for consistency since. Kontaveit, the 28th seed, won the first nine games as she dominated last year's US Open semi-finalist.

Source: BBC January 25, 2020 02:29 UTC