Elise Mertens and Storm Hunter advance to third round

Elise Mertens and Storm Hunter qualified for the women's doubles third round at the Australian Open on Sunday. The Belgian and Australian won in the second round with twice 6-3 over Hungary's Timea Baboc and France's Kristina Mladenovic in 1 hour and 12 minutes.

Mertens and Hunter, the numbers five and twelve on the WTA doubles rankings, are the fourth set head on the hardcourt in Melbourne. They will take on Viktorija Golubic and Monica Niculescu for a place in the quarter-finals. That Swiss-Romanian duo eliminated Belgian player Greet Minnen and Hungarian Anna Bondar 6-4, 6-1 on Friday.

Mertens won the 2021 Australian Open doubles with Belarusian player Aryna Sabalenka, who eliminated her 6-2, 6-3 in the third round of singles on Saturday. She also won the US Open with Sabalenka in 2019 and Wimbledon with Taiwanese Hsieh Su-Wei in 2021.

^{© BELGA PHOTO PATRICK HAMILTON}