- Fifth seed beats American Shelby Rogers 6-1, 6-3 in Melbourne
- Russian shows drastically improved service game
Without a single double-fault, Aryna Sabalenka has served up her biggest warning yet to her Australian Open rivals. The world No 5 continued her flawless start to the summer to roar into the third round at Melbourne Park with a 6-1, 6-3 trouncing of dangerous American Shelby Rogers on Thursday.
The big-hitting Rogers, a former grand slam conqueror of Ash Barty, threatened an upset early when she raced to a 3-1 lead on Rod Laver Arena. But Sabalenka reeled off five straight games to snatch the second set before running away with the match in one hour, 27 minutes.