Heather Watson has progressed into the third round of the 2013 Australian Open, after a three-set win over Kazakhstan's Ksenia Pervak. The No 1 British women's singles player beat Pervak 4-6, 7-6, 6-2, to record a best-ever performance at Melbourne.

Watson is joined in the next round by the second seed, Russian Maria Sharapova, who beat Japan's Misaki Doi 6-0, 6-0. The 2008 Australian Open champion will play American Venus Williams, the 25th seed, in the first high-profile encounter of the draw. Williams, a four-time Wimbledon champion, beat France's Alize Cornet in straight sets in her second round match.

Maria Sharapova
Maria Sharapova of Russia blows kisses to the crowd after defeating Misaki Doi of Japan during their women's singles match at the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne Reuters

Meanwhile, women's singles fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska defeated Romania's Irina-Camelia Begu 6-3, 6-3 to book a third round slot. She will be joined by the fifth and sixth seeds, Angelique Kerber of Germany and Li Na of China, who progressed with straight sets wins over Lucie Hradecka and Olga Govortsova respectively.

Watson is now scheduled to play Radwanska in a third round encounter, with the winner, potentially, set to meet either 13th seed Ana Ivanovic (who beat Taipei's Yung-Jan Chan) or 22nd seed Jelena Jankovic (who beat Portugal's Maria Joao Koehler).

The upset for the day was the loss of ninth seed and local favourite Samantha Stosur. The 2011 US Open champion lost 6-4, 1-6, 7-5 to China's Jie Zheng. The 29-year-old Zheng will now play 18th seed Julia Goerges of Germany in the third round. Unseeded Russian Valeria Savinykh was also in the news after a straight sets win over 15th seed Slovakian Dominika Cibulkova.

The United Kingdom's second hope in the women's singles draw, Laura Robson, is scheduled to play eight seed Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic.

Men's Singles

Fifth seed Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic powered to a 6-2, 6-2, 6-4 win over Guillaume Rufin of France in his second round match. Berdych will now play the 26th seed, Austria's Jurgen Melzer.

Tomas Berdych
Tomas Berdych of Czech Republic hits a return to Guillaume Rufin of France during their men's singles match at the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne Reuters

Also through was 15th seed Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland, who beat Tobias Kamke of Germany to set up a tie with 20th seed Sam Querrey of the US.

Tenth seed Nicolas Almagro of Spain recorded a straight sets win over compatriot Daniel Gimeno-Traver and he will face Jerzy Janowicz of Poland, who beat India's Somdev Devvarman.

Other seeds through are Julien Benneteau [32], Kei Nishikori [16], Marcos Baghdatis [28], David Ferrer [4] and Radek Stepanek [31].

Men's World No 1, Novak Djokovic of Serbia is through to the next round as well; for details on Djokovic's win, click here.

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