Hungarians Debut with Victories at the Australian Open

Both Tímea Babos and Márton Fucsovics mad it to to the second reound at this year's Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne. The third Hungarian in the main draw, Attila Balázs will taken on his first round opponent tomorrow.

Celebrating his 29th birthday, Fucsovics (No. 55 in the world rankings) took on local player world No. 125 Marc Polmans in the first round of the men's singles event and it took five sets to defeat him 4:6, 6:3, 6:1, 6:7 (3-7), 6:3 in a marathon match of four hours and 12 minutes.

"In the fifth set, I was able to stay mentally strong, I thought of my birthday, which brought me positive feelings," he said. In the second round Wednesday, Fucsovics faces No. 17 seed Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland, a threetime Grand Slam champion.

For world No. 114 Tímea Babos, it was a much smoother ride. In the first round of the women's singles, she beat Belgian Ysaline Bonaventure, who is ranked 9 places behind the Hungarian player, 7:6 (7-0), 6:4.

Babos was already 5-2 up in the first set before the Belgian forced her to a tie break that the Hungarian won esaily. the secoind set was much more balanced but a breal decided in Babos' favor. In the second round, she will face Russia's world No. 101, Anastasia Potapova.