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Roundup: Future stars through unscathed on winning day for Chinese tennis

Xinhua, January 21, 2017 Adjust font size:

Tennis prospects in China are bright after the juniors started unscathed at the Australian Open on Saturday.

China's Junior Girls got into round two with straight sets victories, led by Ma Shuyue defeating Croatian Lea Boskovic 6-3, 6-4, while Yuan Chengyiyi downed Romanian Mihaela Lorena Marculescu 7-6 (3), 6-4.

In the Boys, top seed Wu Yibing defeated Japan's Yuta Kikuchi in straight sets 7-5, 6-2 in what looks a promising career for China's best male prospect after making multiple trips for training in Spain over the past two years.

"I was nervous in the beginning of the match today, because it is the grand slam (and) it is the first time I am the top seed, so there are some pressure on me," Wu told reporters after his win, adding, "I have to be more focused and more confidence."

"So happy to win, I will make my best in every round and hope can win this tournament."

In what capped an excellent day for Chinese tennis, the all the doubles teams continued their Australian Open campaign.

Xu Yifan and partner, American Raquel Atawo had a difficult round two bout with Romanian Raluca Olaru and Ukranian Olga Savchuk, coming from one set down to eventually taking the tie 6-7 (5), 7-6 (4), 6-4.

Meanwhile the all-China pairing Liang Chen and Yang Zhaoxuan looked comfortable in their 6-2, 6-2 win over Japan's Nao Hibino and Poland's Alicja Rosolska, though it was not an easy game as the score looked as they faced challenges, especially in the first set.

"We encouraged each other when we face challenges and it is important to give confidence to your teammate in the match," Liang told reporters post match.

"We knew our opponents well and before the match we studied their strategy," Yang added.

"We delivered what we have been trained and won."

Laing said they were "so happy to win" and think "we could win more rounds". Enditem