On January 19, 2023, Beijing time, the second round of the Australian Open women's singles broke out, and the No. 9 seed Kudemetova lost 1-2 to qualifier Wolinets, and missed the round of 32. Previously, 8th seed Kasakina won only 2 sets, losing 2-12, and the women's singles sent away two of the world's top 10 masters, both of whom are in the bottom half with Zhang Shuai, and if Zhang Shuai beats Maltic, then the opponent in the third round is Wolinets, which is a good chance for Zhang Shuai to reach the round of 16 again.
In the women's singles, the first top 10 seed to be eliminated was Kasakina, who was ranked No. 8 in the world and lost to Gracheva 1-6 by two times. Kasakina suffered a round and Gracheva beat the world's top 10 for the first time, and she was lucky to play against qualifier Stephanini and is expected to move on.
After world No. 8 Kasakina was out, world No. 9 Kudemetova was also eliminated. In the second round of the women's singles, Kudmetova faced qualifier Wolinets, in which Kudmetova made too many mistakes and lost the first set 4-6. In the second set, Kudmetova's form rebounded and she returned with a 6-2 salute, but Kudmetova did not continue her strong position, losing the tiebreaker 2-6, and was eliminated by Wöllinetz.
Wolinets has scored the biggest victory of her career so far, as she has never beaten a top 50 player in the world before, and she is certainly thrilled to knock out world number 9 Kudmetova directly in a Grand Slam tournament. It was also the first time that Wolinetz reached the last 32 of a Grand Slam, followed by a winner between Zhang Shuai and Maltić.
For the veteran Zhang Shuai, Kasakina and Kudmetova are out one after another, which is obviously good news, because Zhang Shuai and these two players are in the same semi-zone, and Kudmetova is the big seed against Zhang Shuai, if Zhang Shuai defeats Maltic in the second round, then the opponent in the third round is changed from Kudmetova to Wolinets, Zhang Shuai obviously has a bigger chance to win, she has a chance to reach the Australian Open women's singles round of 16 again.
Of course, Zhang Shuai also has to face huge challenges, first of all, her first round has been postponed several times, which has led to her insufficient rest time, and secondly, she has many hands, the pressure is indeed relatively high, and she must first try to beat Maltic so that she can think about the next match.
In the rest of the second round of the women's singles, No. 5 seed Sabalenka completed a comeback after trailing 1-3 in the opening game to sweep Rodgers 6-3, 6-1, and then face the winner between Davis and Mertens. No. 19 seed Alexandrova turned around after dropping a set to eliminate Townsend 1-6, 6-2, 6-3, and then face the winner between Kontaveit and Rinet. In the women's doubles, 11th seeds Yang Zhaoxuan/Zhan Haoqing eliminated the wildcard pair Koney/Stosur 6-3, 6-4 to win the first victory of the new season, and the veteran Stosur ended the last women's doubles match of his career!