(Sports Focus) Chinese Peng Shuai romps into Australian Open 3rd round (updated)

Chinese Peng Shuai crushed Slovakian Magdalena Rybarikova 6-1, 6-1 on Wednesday morning, reaching the women's singles third round of the Australian Open, four years after the last time she did that.

The 28-year-old Peng is the only Chinese survivor in the year's first grand slam event after the other five were eliminated in the first round.

With Li Na, the winner of two grand slam titles, in retirement, Chinese are placing hope on Peng, who admitted she was playing under great pressure although she hadn't set any target for the event.

Rybarikova, who is familiar with Peng's game, wilted under a barrage of deep ground strokes.

"Peng's forehand is powerful, and her serve is wonderful," Rybarikova said before her second round game.

Despite a muscle strain in her left leg, Peng breezed through, and her opponent only managed to avoid two love games.

It took the No. 21 seed one hour and 10 minutes to beat the 47th-ranked rival.

A smiling Peng said after the game in the Hisense Arena that the leg injury would not affect too much her next match against Kazakhstan's Yaroslava Shvedova.

Peng remains unbeaten against Shvedova in their three encounters on fast court. She will make it to the last 16 in three straight grand slam events should she beat Shvedova.

Peng refused to be compared with Li Na, saying "I will work harder and I am expecting a breakthrough in the future." Endi