China's Zhu Lin advances to second round in Australian Open qualifying

MELBOURNE, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- China's Zhu Lin is through to the second round at the qualifying tournament for the Australian Open after beating Brazil's Laura Pigossi on Monday.

Zhu came back from losing four of the first five games of the match to defeat the world No.200 6-4, 6-4 in one hour and 35 minutes at Melbourne Park.

After winning five consecutive games to claim the first set, Zhu again fell behind 4-2 in the second before staging another comeback by winning four straight games to end the match, converting her fourth match point with a powerful backhand.

Players in the tournament must win rounds of matches to qualify for the main singles draw at the Australian Open, which begins at Melbourne Park on Sunday. Zhu will play Andorra's Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva in the second round.

One of tennis' four grand slams, this year's Australian Open has a prize purse of 111.5 million Australian dollars (73.59 million U.S. dollars), representing a 16 percent rise on 2025's 96.5 million dollar (63.69 million U.S. dollar) pool. ■