The pair of Gabriela Ruse and Marta Kostiuk reached the round of 16 doubles at the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam tournament of the year, on Saturday.

Gabriela and her colleague beat the favorites no. 9, American Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Australian Ellen Perez, 3-6, 7-6(7), 6-0. The game lasted two hours and two minutes.

In the tie-break of the second set, the Romanian-Ukrainian couple saved a match point – 6-7.

After qualifying for the round of 16, Ruse and Kostyuk received a joint check for AUD$67,250 and 240 WTA points each in the doubles ranking.

For a place in the quarters, Gabriela and Marta will play against the winning team of the match Miriam Kolodzeyova/Marketa Vondrousova (Czech Republic) – Beatrice Haddad Maia/Shuai Zhang (Brazil/China, favorites 7).

In the same phase of the competition, Monica Niculescu and the Swiss Victoria Golubic will fight with the winners of the match Storm Hunter/Elise Mertens (Australia/Belgium, favorites 4) – Timea Babos/Kristina Mladenovych (Hungary/France). It should be recalled that the Babos / Mladenovych duo has won four Grand Slam tournaments in this formula.