MANILA, Philippines (Updated 2:27 p.m.) — Australia-born Filipino tennis player Lizette Cabrera and partner Priscilla Hon reached the second round of the Australian Open Women's Doubles tournament at the expense of Leylah Fernandez and Erin Routliffe, 6-3, 6-1, on Wednesday.
Cabrera and Hon needed just 59 minutes to dispatch of Fernandez, who has Filipino heritage, and Routliffe and thus advanced to the Round of 32.
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The Aussie pair shifted momentum on their side in the opening set when they won four of the last five games to take the early advantage, 6-3.
This buoyed them in the second salvo where they jumped to the early 4-0 lead.
While Fernandez and Routliffe held their serve in Game Five to take one back, 1-4, it was just a consolation as Cabrera and Hon won back-to-back games to take the match and move on.
This is the second time Cabrera has reached Round Two of women's doubles in the Australian Open.
In singles, Cabrera failed to reach the main draw after she fell in the second round of qualifiers.
Meanwhile, Fernandez suffered an early exit in the first round of women's singles against Maddison Inglis, 6-4, 6-2.
Incidentally, Inglis was Cabrera's doubles partner in Melbourne last year.
In Men's Doubles, Philippine national team main stay Treat Huey also took a victory in Melbourne.
He and Indonesian partner Christopher Rungkat eked out a three-set win over former Men's Doubles World No. 3 Rohan Bopanna of India and French Doubles champion Edouard Roger-Vasselin, 3-6, 7-6(2), 6-2.