World No.2 Karolina Pliskova was happy to win ugly as she joined big guns including two-time major winner Garbine Muguruza and Swiss sixth seed Belinda Bencic in the Australian Open third round.
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Pliskova, who was a semi-finalist at Melbourne Park last year, outclassed Germany's Laura Siegemund 6-3 6-3 on Thursday on Rod Laver Arena.
I'm not sure if it was nice tennis," said Pliskova, who started her year in style with victory at the Brisbane International.
"It was very ugly and was never going to look amazing."
World No. 72 Siegemund had beaten Pliskova in their only previous meeting and again unsettled the Czech with her variation.
"Against her you are never going to feel amazing because she tries to play a lot of styles, a lot of dropshots, slice," Pliskova said..
"There is a lot of different shots which she's playing so I was not feeling perfect.
"I think I did OK and it was kind of a solid match.
"I'm just happy to get through and hopefully I'm going to feel better in the next round."
Muguruza ousted Australian hope Ajla Tomljanovic 6-3 3-6 6-3 in a two-hour, 20-minute battle while Bencic had a straight-sets win over Jelena Ostapenko.
Muguruza, a former French Open and Wimbledon champion, is looking to scale the rankings after slumping to world No.32.
The Spaniard has been battling a viral illness which forced her to withdraw in the Hobart quarter-finals but looked back to full fitness on Thursday, blasting 34 winners against Tomljanovic.
Muguruza's round-three opponent will be either fifth-seeded Ukrainian Elina Svitolina or American Lauren Davis while Pliskova takes on the winner of the Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova-Taylor Townsend match.
Bencic didn't have it all her own way against Ostapenko, the 2017 French Open champion, before she prevailed 7-5 7-5.
Reaching last year's US Open semi-finals as well as the final four at the WTA Finals, Bencic has been on the rise after a wretched run with injury.
The 22-year-old will play either Estonian 28th seed Anett Kontaveit or Spaniard Sara Sorribes Tormo on Saturday for a place in the last 16.
In other women's action, Croatian 19th seed Donna Vekic enjoyed a routine 6-4 6-2 win over France's Alize Cornet, 16th-seeded Belgian Elise Mertens thrashed Brit Heather Watson while Australia's Arina Rodionova put up a strong challenge before losing to Dutch ninth seed Kiki Bertens 6-3 7-5.
Australian Associated Press
