Elise Mertens sets round three clash with Aryna Sabalenka, her former doubles partner

Belgian Elise Mertens, the No 26 seed, advanced to the third round of the Australian Open by defeating American Lauren Davis 6-4, 6-3 at Melbourne Park on Thursday night.

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Mertens, ranked No 32, will play Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, the No 5 seed, next.

Mertens reached the semi-finals at Melbourne Park in 2018 and now owns a record of 18-5 at the Australian Open. She has reached the round of 16 in Melbourne in four of the last five seasons.

The Belgian won against Spaniard Garbine Muguruza (3-6, 7-6 (3), 6-1) in the previous round.

During the first round, Davis, ranked No 57, won against Montenegrin Danka Kovinic (1-6, 7-5, 6-1).

Melbourne (Grand Slam), other second-round results (Melbourne Park, hard, USD 24.297.942, most recent results first):

• Marketa Vondrousova vs. Ons Jabeur
• Claire Liu vs. Belinda Bencic
• Nuria Parrizas Diaz vs. Anastasia Potapova
• Varvara Gracheva vs. Lucrezia Stefanini
• Kimberly Birrell vs. Linda Fruhvirtova
• Donna Vekic vs. Liudmila Samsonova
• Shuai Zhang vs. Petra Martic
• Yulia Putintseva vs. Karolina Pliskova
• Anna Karolina Schmiedlova vs. Camila Giorgi
• Leylah Fernandez vs. Caroline Garcia
• Irina-Camelia Begu vs. Laura Siegemund
• Anett Kontaveit vs. Magda Linette: thursday
• Aryna Sabalenka beat Shelby Rogers: 6-3, 6-1
• Ekaterina Alexandrova (19) beat Taylor Townsend (WC): 1-6, 6-2, 6-3
• Katie Volynets (Q) beat Veronika Kudermetova (9): 6-4, 2-6, 6-2
• Victoria Azarenka (24) beat Nadia Podoroska: 6-1, 6-0
• Danielle Collins (13) beat Karolina Muchova: 6-7 (1), 6-2, 7-6 (6)
• Bernarda Pera beat Qinwen Zheng (29): 6-4, 6-4
• Marta Kostyuk beat Olivia Gadecki (WC): 6-2, 6-1
• Elena Rybakina (22) beat Kaja Juvan: 6-2, 6-1
• Coco Gauff (7) beat Emma Raducanu: 6-3, 7-6 (4)
• Kateryna Baindl beat Catherine McNally: 6-1, 7-6 (4)
• Madison Keys (10) beat Xinyu Wang: 6-3, 6-2
• Barbora Krejcikova (20) beat Clara Burel (Q): 6-4, 6-1
• Cristina Bucsa (Q) beat Bianca Andreescu: 2-6, 7-6 (7), 6-4
• Lin Zhu beat Jil Teichmann (32): 6-2, 6-2
• Jelena Ostapenko (17) beat Anna Bondar: 7-6 (5), 5-7, 6-0
• Anhelina Kalinina beat Petra Kvitova (15): 7-5, 6-4
• Jessica Pegula (3) beat Aliaksandra Sasnovich: 6-2, 7-6 (5)
• Maria Sakkari (6) beat Diana Shnaider (Q): 3-6, 7-5, 6-3
• Iga Swiatek (1) beat Camila Osorio: 6-2, 6-3