There were plenty of surprise results in the second round of the Australian Open, with a number of top seeds exiting the competition.
Defending champion Naomi Osaka and world number one Ashleigh Barty breezed through their second-round encounters but other big names struggled and saw their chances of Grand Slam glory pass them by.
Here are the top five upsets from round two in Melbourne:
Emma Raducanu
Emma Raducanu suffered her earliest ever exit from a Grand Slam after losing to the unseeded Danka Kovinic in three sets.
Raducanu was hampered by blisters on her right hand the entire match but fought valiantly to take the contest to a decider.
The Brit had chances to break early on in the third set. However, it was the Montenegrin who eventually prevailed –– winning 6-4 4-6 6-3.
Nonetheless, the teenager exits the competition with her head held high, while Kovinic will face either Simona Halep or Beatriz Haddad Maia in round three.
Garbiñe Muguruza
Third seed Garbiñe Muguruza was defeated in straight sets by veteran French star Alizé Cornet.
Muguruza won the end of year WTA Finals in 2021 and had been tipped to go far in the tournament but her preparation was hampered in the build-up to the event.
The Spaniard’s team tested positive for Covid-19 before flying out to Australia and she was forced to train on her own for two weeks at the tail end of the off-season.
Muguruza was well beaten in the end –– losing 6-3 6-3.
Anett Kontaveit
Anett Kontaveit was one of the in-form players in the world leading into the competition, having enjoyed a remarkable end to 2021.
The 26-year-old won back-to-back tournaments at the Kremlin Cup and Transylvania Open to climb into the top 10 of the world rankings.
Today, however, she came up short against Clara Tauson, with the Dane winning in straight sets 6-2 6-4.
Elena Rybakina
Elena Rybakina enjoyed a fine start to the season –– reaching the final of the Adelaide International.
She followed this up with a crushing 6-0 6-1 victory over US Open champion Raducanu in Sydney.
However, an injury forced her to pull out of Sydney and the 22-year-old has seemingly failed to recover fully –– withdrawing from her match against Zhang Shuai today, having been a set and a break down.
Belinda Bencic
Olympic champion Belinda Bencic was seeded 22nd for the tournament but faced a tough second-round draw against Amanda Anisimova.
The American is yet to lose in 2022 and got the better of the Swiss star in straight sets, 6-2 7-5.
Next up for Anisimova is defending champion Naomi Osaka.
