THE top four seeds at the Hobart International have moved through to the second round with a couple of matches taking just over an hour of game play. Number one seed, Elise Mertens smashed American Christina McHale 6-1 6-1 in just 68 minutes, while third seed Elena Rybakina cruised past Slovenian Tamara Zidansek 6-1 6-4 in just 65 minutes. Meanwhile, second seed Garbine Muguruza advanced with a 6-1 7-5 victory over Yafan Wang, and fourth seed Shuai Zhang advanced though not without a huge challenge. Zhang came from a set down to finally shake off Belgium’s Kirsten Flipkens, 4-6 6-3 6-2.

The upset of the day belonged to young Australian, Lizette Cabrera who on home soil took down the eighth seed Frenchwoman, Caroline Garcia. While Garcia has been out of sorts the last couple of months – going down to Ash Barty 6-0 6-0 an example – it was a spirited performance from Cabrera who came from a set down to run over the top of Garcia, 4-6 6-4 6-2 in just over two hours. Garcia produced eight aces, but four double faults and the 22-year-old Australian took the opportunity to break. She broke the eighth seed’s serve six times from a massive 16 chances, while was only broken four times herself. She was more consistent on serve, and won 59 per cent of points off Garcia’s second serve which was a key difference in the game.

In other results, it was better news for fellow Frenchwoman, Alize Cornet who won against Alison Van Uytvanck, 7-5 1-6 6-2. American Catherine Bellis defeated Marie Bouzkova in the longest game of the day in two hours and 50 minutes with a final score of 3-6 7-6 6-3, while Peru’s Ons Jabeur knocked off Russian up-and-come Anna Blinkova, 6-4 6-1 in 77 minutes.

First up in matches today, Cabrera hopes to continue her run against Kristyna Pliskova, while Muguruza and Jabeur lock horns after that with Rybakina and Cornet doing battle in the third game on centre court. Over on the west court, fifth seed Veronika Kudermetova will face Bellis, sixth seed Magda Linette will meet Lauren Davis and Zhang takes on Ukrainian qualifier, Kateryna Kozlova. At night, Great Britain’s Heather Watson faces Frenchwoman Fiona Ferro, while top seed Mertens meets Viktoria Kuzmova.

Day 2 Results:

[1] E. Mertens (BEL) defeated C. McHale (USA) 6-1 6-1
[2] G. Muguruza (ESP) defeated Y. Wang (CHN) 6-1 7-5
[3] E. Rybakina (KAZ) T. Zidansek (SLO)
[4] S. Zhang (CHN) defeated K. Flipkens (BEL) 4-6 6-3 6-2
L. Cabrera (AUS) defeated [8] C. Garcia (FRA) 4-6 6-4 6-2
C. Bellis (USA) defeated M. Bouzkova (CZE) 3-6 7-6 6-3
A. Cornet (FRA) defeated A. Van Uytvanck (BEL) 7-5 1-6 6-2
O. Jabeur (TUN) defeated A. Blinkova (RUS) 6-4 6-1