Three doubles teams featuring Chinese players made it through to the second round of the Australian Open on Wednesday, after an action-packed day of tennis at Melbourne Park.
The Chinese men's pairing of Zhang Ze and Gong Maoxin faced a tough challenge against Poland's Marcin Matkowski and Slovakia's Martin Klizan.
After going up in a tight first set, the European duo then evened the score in second.
But after a gritty, nail-biting third set, Zhang and Gong managed to break serve and close out the contest 7-5, 5-7, 6-4.
"For Chinese men's tennis, it may give them more confidence, not only us tennis players, but it might also give more confidence to coaches, fans and people to support us," Zhang told Xinhua after the match.
"We have a clear goal and will work very hard to achieve it,"
Despite going down earlier in the day against world No. 15 Ashley Barty in her second round singles match, China's Wang Yafan bounced back later in the afternoon when she paired up with Ukrainian hitter Nadiia Kichenok.
The two breezed through their opening match against Georgia's Oksana Kalashnikova and Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine, taking the contest in straight sets 6-4, 6-2.
Although it was a tougher time for Zhang Shuai and her Australian partner Samantha Stosur when they took on Slovakian duo Viktoria Kuzmova and Magdalena Rybarikova, Zhang and Stosur were able to battle through a first set tie-break and seal the victory in the second set, 7-6 (3), 6-2.
But while it was generally a strong day for Chinese competitors, Zheng Saisai and her Serbian partner Aleksandra Krunic weren't able to get past the Australian duo of Jessica Moore and Monique Adamczak, going down to the local pair 6-1, 6-4.
