Central Plains FFA Chapter

01/21 20:06 CST Defending champion Keys reaches the Australian Open third round, fellow American Pegula joins her Defending champion Keys reaches the Australian Open third round, fellow American Pegula joins her MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) --- Defending champion Madison Keys survived a tough second-set challenge on Thursday but overcame fellow American Ashlyn Krueger 6-1, 7-5 to reach the third round of the Australian Open. After sweeping through the first set, the ninth-seeded Keys fell behind 5-2 in the second set but rallied for the victory at John Cain Arena. In another early match between two American women, sixth-seeded Jessica Pegula defeated McCartney Kessler 6-0, 6-2. "I think I started really well and Ashlyn started a little bit slow," Keys said. "And then I was fully expecting her to raise her level, which she did. It just kind of got away from me a little quickly." Keys said she tried to get back to basics, hoping she could at least prepare herself for a deciding third set. Instead, she took the second. "I just wanted to, even if I lost the (second) set, make sure I tried to get back in the set and try to figure out where my game kind of went and be able to get a few more points on the board," Keys said. "Once I kind of got back momentum I just tried to sink my teeth into the set and do whatever I could to get back into it." Later fourth-seeded and 10-time Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic was up against Francesco Maestrelli of Italy. ___ More AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis