Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova secured her first career victory in seven attempts over world number two Karolina Pliskova on Saturday as the Australian Open lost another high seed in the third round.


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Russian Pavlyuchenkova battled to a 7-6(4), 7-6(3) win over the second-seeded Czech, who joined defending champion Naomi Osaka and 23-times Grand Slam winner Serena Williams in making third-round exits.


Pavlyuchenkova had a 4-1 lead in the first set and a 2-0 lead in the second before being taken to tiebreaks but won the key points to clinch victory in two hours, 25 minutes.


"It hasn`t sunk in yet. I`m still in the match and focusing on the next point," Pavlyuchenkova said.


"I was thinking that if I take one or two games on her serve that would be amazing because she is the ace-queen on the tour so that was my goal, so I was focusing on returning well. I also managed to hold on my serve too, so that helped."


She will next meet three-times Grand Slam champion Angelique Kerber in the fourth round after the German beat Italy`s Camila Giorgi 6-2 6-7(4) 6-3 on Margaret Court Arena.