Sixteen-year-old Mirra Andreeva insisted she was nervous before walking onto Rod Laver Arena to take on her idol Ons Jabeur early on Wednesday. Watching her produce the upset of the tournament so far, you wouldn’t have known it.
Just 20 minutes into the match – played under the roof after a wet start to Day 4 – the teenager was heading to her bench having just bageled the three-time Grand Slam finalist 6-0.
After 54 minutes it was all over, the world No.47 producing a demolition job on the stunned Tunisian sixth seed 6-0 6-2, a performance of staggering maturity and quality that surprised even herself.
“In the first set, I showed amazing tennis,” admitted Andreeva, who finished runner-up in the girls’ singles 12 months ago. “I honestly didn’t expect that from myself.”
Incredibly, three 16-year-olds all played matches on the main show court on Wednesday, but Andreeva was the only one to book a spot in the third round.
Second seed and defending champion Aryna Sabalenka took care of another of that teenage trio in the night session, improving throughout a 6-3 6-2 victory over Czech qualifier Brenda Fruhvirtova to keep her title defence on track.
Reigning US Open champion Coco Gauff didn’t have everything her own way at Margaret Court Arena but still went through in straight sets against fellow American Caroline Dolehide 7-6(2) 6-2.
All four of the top eight seeds in action in the men’s draw came through second-round matches. Fourth seed Jannik Sinner was the first through on MCA, and dropped just six games in the process against Dutch qualifier Jesper de Jong.
Later, top seed Novak Djokovic extended his Australian Open win streak to 30 matches by beating Alexei Popyrin in a tight four-setter, although the Australian had four set points to go up two sets to one. There were wins too for fifth seed Andrey Rublev and seventh seed Stefanos Tsitsipas, last year's runner-up.
Two Aussies kept the flag flying for the home nation as men’s No.1 Alex De Minaur and women’s qualifier Storm Hunter enjoyed safe passages.
‘Demon’ continued his strong start to the year by outplaying talented young Italian Matteo Arnaldi 6-3 6-0 6-3, while doubles world No.1 Hunter took out Germany’s Laura Siegemund to set up a third-round meeting with ninth seed Barbora Krejcikova.
There were mixed fortunes for three seeded American men. Taylor Fritz and Ben Shelton both progressed, but Frances Tiafoe went out to Czech world No.75 Tomas Machac 6-4 6-4 7-6(5).
Tiafoe wasn’t the only seed bundled out of the tournament. Poland’s Magdalena Frech beat 16th seed Caroline Garcia 6-4 7-6(2), after the Frenchwoman had beaten Naomi Osaka in the first round. Later, eighth seed Maria Sakkari was sent packing by Elina Avanesyan 6-4 6-4 in a match that finished at close to 1am on Thursday.
Young American Alycia Parks beat 32nd seed and former US Open finalist Leylah Fernandez to set up a meeting with Coco Gauff on Friday, while qualifier Maria Timofeeva came back from a set down to beat former world No.1 and 2018 champion Caroline Wozniacki in another surprise result.