After a second round that featured some major upsets, the third round began on Friday from Melbourne Park. Order was restored in the day session as the higher seeds found success again.

After a couple of dicey matches, top-seed and defending champion Angelique Kerber found her stride against Krystina Pliskova, rolling to a 6-0, 6-4 win. The German recovered nicely after being pushed to three sets in her first two matches in Australia.

Kerber was consistent in most areas of her game and controlled the majority of points. Her counter-punching style forced the Czech into difficult court positions and forced 34 unforced errors. She won the opening set in just 20 minutes and took the match in 55 minutes.

Even though the result was one-sided, the world no.1 gave credit to her opponent afterward. “I think it was not so easy because I know that she's a tough opponent,” Kerber said. “She can serve very well and she hits the balls very strong. I was trying to stay until the last point very focused because you never know what happens.”

Meanwhile, Andy Murray was fast out of the gate and withstood any attempts by Sam Querrey to turn their third-round match in his favor, advancing to the fourth round 6-4, 6-2, 6-4.

The aggressive Scot ripped 40 winners in the match and broke the American’s serve on five out of his eight chances. Querrey could not produce enough from his serve which is typically his biggest weapon.

Despite the lopsided score, Murray said he felt pressured early, “It was a tough match, especially in the first set. He was hitting the ball huge and served extremely well,” said Murray. “A key moment at 3-4 in the first set when I saved a break point and managed to break in the next game. I had the momentum after that.”

“I felt better and better as the match went on in terms of my movement. I was a little bit hesitant at the beginning because [my ankle] was a little bit sore, but I was moving well at the end so it's very positive”, he said.

Other notable winners in early action on Friday included Stan Wawrinka and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the men’s draw. Coco Vandeweghe and Svetlana Kuznetsova were winners in the women’s draw.