MELBOURNE, Jan. 18 -- Zhang Shuai and her Australian teammate Sam Stosur made it past the second round of the Australian Open women's doubles bracket on Friday, after another solid showing at the tournament.
Facing off against American Abigail Spears and her partner Hsieh Su-wei from Chinese Taipei, the first set was a back-and-forth struggle that ended in a lengthy tie break.
In the end, Zhang and Stosur were able to outlast their opponents to serve out the first set and hold on in the second, with final scores of 7-6 (6), 6-2.
The Chinese men's pairing of Zhang Ze and Gong Maoxin were not so lucky when they took on the Spanish duo of Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and Pablo Carreno Busta.
Despite a spirited performance and a second set fightback, Zhang and Gong were knocked out of the tournament 6-3, 4-6, 6-3.
"Although the result makes us feel sad, it was a great experience that we can take a lot of lessons from today," Gong told Xinhua after the match.
"These experiences will help us prepare for the three other Grand Slams this year, as well as the Davis Cup, and I think we will be more confident and hopefully have a better performance next time."
In the women's doubles, China's Wang Yafan and her Ukrainian teammate Nadiia Kichenok didn't quite have enough firepower to get past the tournament's fourth seeded pair, going down to American Nicole Melichar and the Czech Republic's Kveta Peschke 6-4, 6-3.
Another Chinese pair Jiang Xinyu and Wang Qiang had an equally rough time, losing out to Chinese Taipei's Chan Hao-ching and Latisha Chan 6-2, 6-3.