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Romanian tennis players Monica Niculescu and Gabriela Ruse, in different pairs, qualified, on Thursday, in Melbourne, for the second round of the women's doubles event of the Australian Open tournament, the first Grand Slam of the year, told Agerpres.
Niculescu and the Swiss Viktorija Golubic passed the first round 6-4, 6-4 against the Romanian-German couple Jaqueline Cristian/Tamara Korpatsch, after one hour and 24 minutes of playing.
In the second round, Niculescu and her partner will face the pair Anna Bondar (Hungary)/Greet Minnen (Belgium).
On Thursday, Gabriela Ruse and Ukrainian Marta Kostiuk defeated American Danielle Collins and British Heather Watson, 6-4, 6-2, after one hour and 27 minutes of playing.
The next opponents for Ruse and Kostiuk will be the winners of the match Nicole Melichar-Martinez (USA)/Ellen Perez (Australia) - Ekaterina Alexandrova (Russia)/Vivian Heisen (Germany).
Ruse and Kostiuk reached the quarterfinals of the women's doubles last year at Roland Garros.
In another match played on Thursday in Melbourne, Ana Bogdan and German Tatjana Maria got defeated by Australians Olivia Gadecki/Priscilla Hon 6-4, 6-2, after one hour and 25 minutes of playing.
Pairs who lost in the first round walked away with 10 WTA doubles points and a check of AUD 30,975, while the pairs who reached the second round won a cheque of AUD 46,500 and 130 WTA points in doubles.
