Stephens into third round at Melbourne Park
S Stephens d. T Babos 6-3, 6-1; A Pavlyuchenkova d. K Bertens 3-6, 6-3, 6-3
American fifth seed Sloane Stephens has ended the Australian Open campaign of her former junior doubles partner Timea Babos.
Stephens triumphed 6-3, 6-1 although the second-round victory was more hard-fought than suggested by the scoreline.
Hungarian Babos was down break point on 23 occasions, but Stephens was only able to convert five of them in a match that lasted one hour and 35 minutes.
"We won three junior grand slam doubles together, so I know she's a very good player and I had to be patient," said Stephens, the 2017 US Open champion.
"Her serve is ridiculously good."
A former semi-finalist in Melbourne, Stephens' third-round opponent will be Croatian No.31 seed Petra Martic, who ousted Czech Marketa Vondrousova 6-4, 7-5.
In other early action on Wednesday, Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova upset No.9 seed Kiki Bertens from the Netherlands 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.
Belarusian Aliaksandra Sasnovich also ousted a seed, beating No.20 Anett Kontaveit from Estonia 6-3, 6-3.
AAP