Chinese tennis star Zhang Shuai easily passed through the opening round of the ongoing 105th edition of the Australian Open with a convincing 6-0, 6-3 triumph over qualifier Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus on Monday and booked another face-off with Alison Riske of the United States in the event's second round.

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According to Xinhua, the 27-year-old native of Tianjin entered the first Grand Slam tournament of the year as the 20th seed. Zhang, who finished as a quarterfinalist in the event's previous edition last year, wrapped the match less than an hour to set up a repeat of her round two matchup with the American tennis ace at the China Open last year.

"It was a very tough game, the second round of the China Open," Zhang told in an interview following her match, adding she had to play her best against Riske to claim the tiebreak for the win [6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (4)].

"I hope I can perform well in the coming matches," the highest ranked Chinese women's singles tennis player in the world continued.

The upcoming second-round duel between the two professional players will be their fifth meeting since 2011. Basing from the head-to-head comparison of the Chinese and the American players in the official website of the WTA, Zhang and Riske have scored two victories apiece against each other in four matches played.

Riske had prevailed over the current world No. 23 in the 2012 Aegon Classic Birmingham in Great Britain and claimed her second win over Zhang at the Open GDF SUEZ de Limoges in France in the same year.

Zhang registered her initial triumph over the 26-year-old native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at the Miami Open in 2011 before recently defeating Riske at the China Open in Beijing last year.

In 2016, the Chinese tennis star all but gave up the sport following a series of poor results with the racquet. Zhang recorded her first ever Grand Slam victory after sensationally eliminating the 2016 second-seeded Romanian Simona Halep in the opening round.

TagsZhang Shuai, Alison Riske, 2017 australian open, wta rankings, wta