On January 17, Beijing time, the 2025 Australian Open started the third round of singles. In a seeding clash between two YONEX signatories, 18th seed Vekic defeated 12th seed Schneider 7-6(4)/6-7(3)/7-5 in two hours and 58 minutes. This is the third time in her career that Vekic has reached the last 16 of the Australian Open, having entered the second week of her last three consecutive Grand Slam tournaments.

Vekich (Photo: Visual China)

The two sides broke each other in the second and third games of the first set, after which the two men held serve and went into a tie-break in the first set, with Vekic scoring five straight points to take the first set after a 2-4 break. In the second set, Schneider won the set on serve, but Vekic broke back and entered the tie-break again in the second set, and Schneider won the tie-break with a small score of 7-3 to equalize the score. In the deciding set, Schneider broke first in the eighth game to gain a service game, and then Vekic went on a four-game winning streak at the end of the match to seal the win at 7-5.

Vekic will face 27th seed Pavlyuchenkova in the fourth round, who swept past German veteran Sigmund 6-1, 6-2 to reach the last 16 of the Australian Open for the first time in five years.

(Text, Editor/Faye Wong)