Deuce queen Paolini battles rain, Frech to advance at Australian Open

A 6-2, 6-3 scoreline seems straightforward, on the face of it.

Not so for No. 7 seed Jasmine Paolini, whose second-round defeat of Magdalena Frech involved multiple rain delays, a court change and 1 hours and 47 minutes of playing time. The Italian only wrapped up a gruelling day's work at quarter to midnight local time.

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"It was a really tough adventure, guys," Paolini said wearily in her on-court interview. The first lengthy off-court rain delay had occurred when she was up 4-1 in the first set, and the second as she faced double break point in the first game of the second. Following the latter, play resumed not on KIA Arena, where the match had begun, but on the vacant John Cain Arena with its handy roof.

"Different conditions from the KIA Arena to here with the roof closed, so it was really tough to adapt," Paolini said. "But honestly, better here without the wind and without the rain!"

The match itself was an arduous enough test. How, you might wonder, did Paolini and Frech need nearly two hours to play just 17 games? Well, over half of those games went to deuce. There were 22 deuce points, to be precise, spread over nine games.

And how did Paolini emerge with such a routine-looking scoreline? By winning eight of those games, staving off a total of 15 game points across those eight. In total, she also saved 11 out of 14 break points against her. Paolini delicately referred to the "little bit of ups and downs" in the match -- her forehand accuracy ebbed and flowed throughout -- but ultimately, it was a tremendous clutch performance from the two-time major finalist.

And while almost every game could have swung either way, once the finishing line was in sight, Paolini was at her most efficient. She broke Frech from 5-3 in the second set with her best point of the match, a drop shot-backhand pass combination that had the crowd's late-night remnants in raptures. And on her second match point, she made no mistake in hammering home a forehand for her 20th winner of the match.

Opportunity knocks in Paolini's section of the draw, with a brand-new Australian Open quarterfinalist guaranteed ever since Marta Kostyuk's opening loss to Elsa Jacquemot. Paolini and Yulia Putintseva are the only players remaining in it who have made any major quarterfinal before. That's a potential fourth-round meeting for Paolini, but first she'll have to get past No. 29 seed Iva Jovic, who routed wild card Priscilla Hon 6-1, 6-2 in just 71 minutes.

That result put 18-year-old Jovic, the youngest player in the Top 100 and fresh off her second career final in Hobart last week, into the third round of a major for the first time. She'll be bidding to reverse two losses to Paolini last year at Indian Wells and the US Open.

Elsewhere, No. 19 seed Karolina Muchova survived an upset bid from Alycia Parks to advance 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 in 2 hours and 37 minutes. Parks, who tallied 39 winners and 58 unforced errors, pushed 2021 semifinalist Muchova to the very end -- the American played brilliantly to save triple match point on her serve in the penultimate game, and even held a break point to level at 5-5 -- but Muchova had made fast starts to both the second and third sets, and was just about able to hang on to her lead in each.