Touch, tweeners & more: Golubic, Timofeeva thrills Melbourne with hot shots

Armed with a rare one-handed backhand and silky touch, Viktorija Golubic

View Profile has long been one of the Hologic WTA Tour's foremost exponents of hot shots.

The Swiss player was at it again on Day 2 of the Australian Open en route to upsetting No.15 seed Veronika Kudermetova

View Profile 7-6(4), 1-6, 6-1 in the first round. Golubic showed off all of her backhand's variety during a thrilling 25-shot exchange in the second set: a fizzing, flat drive down the line, a defensive lob at full stretch and finally an angled pass caressed delicately past Kudermetova.

Golubic will face Katerina Siniakova

View Profile in the second round.

A day earlier, Budapest champion Maria Timofeeva

View Profile had also won a thrilling exchange on the way to defeating Alizé Cornet 6-2, 6-4. Timofeeva, 20, was playing her first ever Grand Slam main draw match, and announced herself to KIA Arena in style.

The first set saw the No.170-ranked qualifier come out on top of a lungbuster that involved every shot in the book, from every corner of the court. Both players were at net, then pushed back; there were slices, lobs and even a Cornet tweener. But it was Timofeeva who finally ended it with a finely angled backhand pass.

"I was working for that," she said afterwards. "I didn't have much expectations. I just wanted to go there and show what I'm capable of. I didn't know I could play like this."

Timofeeva will have to overcome another gulf in experience in the second round when she takes on 2018 champion Caroline Wozniacki

View Profile .