MELBOURNE, Australia - A year after suffering a first round exit as a seeded player at the Australian Open, Germany's Julia Goerges scored a second round upset on Wednesday to move on in Melbourne.

The former Top 10 player, who just missed out on the seedings at this year's Australian Open with a current ranking of World No.39, edged No.13 seed Petra Martic from a set down, 4-6, 6-3, 7-5.

Goerges hit 13 aces and 44 winners over the course of two hours and six minutes to seal victory in a high-quality encounter on Melbourne Arena, which saw the two competitors share a heartfelt embrace at the net after the match. 

"It was a really tough match. Petra is a great player, and she had her best season last year. I knew that it was going to be tough, but I think in the important moments, I was aggressive," the German said on-court after the match.

"I want to take it into my hands, being aggressive. It doesn't matter if I miss... but I want to go for it, and today, it paid off."

Elsewhere, two Americans eased through to the third round: No.14 seed Sofia Kenin had little problems in dispatching compatriot Ann Li, a 19-year-old from Pennsylvania who qualified into the main draw, 6-1, 6-3, while No.18 seed Alison Riske set a meeting against Goerges after surrendering just four games to China's Zhu Lin, 6-3, 6-1.

Both Kenin and Riske broke serve five times to win their matches, in 57 and 61 minutes, respectively. The pair of Americans were able to adapt to windy conditions better than their opponents, as Li and Zhu racked up 28 and 24 unforced errors. 

Rounding out the afternoon's seeded winners, two of the most in-form players to start 2020 also kept the good vibes going and record their best-ever Australian Open results.

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Shenzhen champion and No.25 seed Ekaterina Alexandrova extended her season-opening winning streak to seven matches with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Czech qualifier Barbora Krejcikova, to reach the third round in Melbourne for the first time and set up a meeting with No.7 seed Petra Kvitova.

Hobart champion and No.29 seed Elena Rybakina earned her 11th win in 12 matches to start her season after beating Belgian qualifier Greet Minnen, 6-3, 6-4, and will be the next foe for World No.1 Ashleigh Barty. 

Also advancing to the third round were former quarterfinalist Zhang Shuai, who ended the run of American teenager Catherine McNally, 6-2, 6-4, and Tunisia's Ons Jabeur, who came from a set down to beat Caroline Garcia, 1-6, 6-2, 6-3, to also reach the third round Down Under for the first time.

As the Melbourne day turned to evening, No.10 seed Madison Keys and No.27 seed Wang Qiang also secured safe passage through to the third round with a 7-6(3), 6-2 win over Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands, and a 6-1, 6-2 win over France's Fiona Ferro, respectively. 

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