MELBOURNE, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- China's Zhang Shuai and doubles partner Kristina Mladenovic from France overcame losing the first set to win their first round match at the Australian Open on Wednesday.
Zhang and Mladenovic, the ninth seeds in the women's doubles, beat McCartney Kessler and Arantxa Rus 5-7, 6-3, 7-5 in almost three hours on a rain-interrupted day at Melbourne Park.
With a combined 11 Grand Slam doubles titles between them, the experience proved crucial for Zhang and Mladenovic as they broke the serve of Rus in the 12th game of the deciding set to secure the victory.
Kessler, who Zhang beat in singles on Tuesday, and Rus had 18 breakpoint opportunities for the match but converted only three of them while the more experienced Chinese-French duo converted five of their nine chances.
Zhang and Mladenovic hit a combined 31 winners for the match, 25 of which were volley shots, and only three unforced errors compared to 21 winners and four unforced errors from the U.S. and Dutch duo.
Earlier on Wednesday, Chinese pair Jiang Xinyu and Wang Yafan were beaten in their first round doubles match 6-2, 7-5 by Rebecca Sramkova and Viktoriya Tomova.
Jiang and Wang made their first serves at an exceptional rate of 82 percent but won only 52 percent of those points and hit five unforced errors for the match compared to zero from their opponents.
Trailing 6-5 in the second set, they had two break points to force a tiebreak but missed both with errors.
In another women's doubles match featuring three Chinese players, Wang Xinyu and teammate Zheng Saisai were tied 1-1 in the first set against Wang Xiyu and Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan before play was suspended due to rain on Wednesday evening and eventually rescheduled.
Yuan Yue's match with Ekaterina Alexandrova against Katarzyna Kawa and Kimberley Zimmerman was also rescheduled before starting. ■
