17-year-old Linda Fruhvirtova continues to impress with second-round win over Birrell

The youngest player remaining in the women’s singles draw in Melbourne is looking like a ringer.

17-year-old Czech Linda Fruhvirtova reached the third round of the Australian Open by winning against Australian wildcard Kimberly Birrell 6-3, 6-2 at Melbourne Park on Thursday night.

Making just her second main draw appearance in a Grand Slam main draw, Fruhvirtova’s path will get considerably more challenging in the third round. The world No 82 will face the winner of the match between Czech Marketa Vondrousova and Tunisian Ons Jabeur, the second seed, next.

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Fruhvirtova, the older sister of 15-year-old Brenda, who was the youngest player in the draw and lost in first-round action, saved five of six break points against Birrell and hit 15 winners against 20 unforced errors.

She is one of two teenagers to have progressed into the third round, along with 18-year-old American Coco Gauff.

Ahead of her victory, the 17-year-old Czech defeated Australian wildcard Jaimee Fourlis (6-0, 6-4).

Birrell, ranked No 167, beat Estonian Kaia Kanepi, the No 31 seed (3-6, 7-6 (4), 6-1) in the previous round.

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

• Marketa Vondrousova vs. Ons Jabeur: thursday in Melbourne
• Claire Liu vs. Belinda Bencic: thursday in Melbourne
• Varvara Gracheva vs. Lucrezia Stefanini: thursday in Melbourne
• Leylah Fernandez vs. Caroline Garcia: thursday in Melbourne
• Shuai Zhang vs. Petra Martic: thursday in Melbourne
• Nuria Parrizas Diaz vs. Anastasia Potapova: thursday
• Karolina Pliskova (30) beat Yulia Putintseva: 6-0, 7-5
• Donna Vekic beat Liudmila Samsonova (18): 6-3, 6-0
• Camila Giorgi beat Anna Karolina Schmiedlova (Q): 6-4, 6-3
• Irina-Camelia Begu vs. Laura Siegemund: thursday
• Magda Linette beat Anett Kontaveit (16): 3-6, 6-3, 6-4
• Elise Mertens (26) beat Lauren Davis: 6-4, 6-3
• Aryna Sabalenka (5) 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

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