Australian Open: Zhang celebrates birthday with Volynet win, meets Pliskova in last 16

Chinese Shuai Zhang, the No 23 seed, advanced to the last 16 of the Australian Open by beating American qualifier Katie Volynets 6-3, 6-2 at Melbourne Park.

It was a happy birthday for Zhang, ranked No 22, who celebrated her 34th birthday on Saturday. She next plays Czech Karolina Pliskova, the No 30 seed, for a place in the quarter-finals.

In the previous rounds, the 34-year-old Chinese, who is a two-time Grand Slam women’s doubles champion and a two-time Grand Slam singles quarter-finalist, beat Romanian Patricia Maria Tig (6-1, 4-6, 6-0) and Croat Petra Martic (6-3, 6-3).

Volynets, ranked No 113, came through the qualifying draw and then beat Russian Evgeniya Rodina (6-3, 6-2) and Russian Veronika Kudermetova, the No 9 seed (6-4, 2-6, 6-2) earlier in the tournament.

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Australian Open (Grand Slam), other third-round results (Melbourne Park, hard, USD 24,297,942, most recent results first):

• Magda Linette vs. Ekaterina Alexandrova
• Laura Siegemund vs. Caroline Garcia
• Linda Fruhvirtova vs. Marketa Vondrousova
• Aryna Sabalenka vs. Elise Mertens
• Camila Giorgi vs. Belinda Bencic
• Donna Vekic beat Nuria Parrizas Diaz: 6-2, 6-2
• Karolina Pliskova beat Varvara Gracheva: 6-4, 6-2
• Lin Zhu beat Maria Sakkari (6): 7-6 (3), 1-6, 6-4
• Victoria Azarenka (24) beat Madison Keys (10): 1-6, 6-2, 6-1
• Iga Swiatek (1) beat Cristina Bucsa (Q): 6-0, 6-1
• Jelena Ostapenko (17) beat Kateryna Baindl: 6-3, 6-0
• Coco Gauff (7) beat Bernarda Pera: 6-3, 6-2
• Jessica Pegula (3) beat Marta Kostyuk: 6-0, 6-2
• Elena Rybakina (22) beat Danielle Collins (13): 6-2, 5-7, 6-2
• Barbora Krejcikova (20) beat Anhelina Kalinina: 6-2, 6-3