Iga Swiatek challenged but finds the goods to prevail in a tricky opening match against Yue Yuan

Iga Swiatek was not at her best in her opening round tie at the Australian Open against Yue Yuan but showcased determined and grit to fight off her opponent 7-6(5), 6-3.

Swiatek's form going into the event was less than ideal. While there were some positive results in Poland's road to the United Cup triumph, she suffered some surprising but damaging defeats to rivals she may be facing in Melbourne over the next couple of weeks. Two of these were against Coco Gauff and Belinda Bencic, with the Pole wanting to put these results behind her and get back in the swing of things with the quest for a career Grand Slam very much on.

She was dragged into a proper match where her form was topsy turvey throughout. At the start she was not at the races but grew into the match, cutting out the early unforced errors to prevail.

It was the qualifier who stormed ahead in the very early stages. She broke the Swiatek serve before failing to take a break point to extend her lead to 3-0. Swiatek fought back with a break to make it 3-3 but she was instantly behind Yuan again.

Swiatek was in a tricky spot when 5-3 down, but did well to get out of it. She held to love before breaking while her opponent attempted to serve out the first set. It went the distance, and it would prove to be a very tight tiebreak at first. After the switch of ends, the former world number one turned up the heat and ran away with it, clinching three of the final four points to survive an early scare to claim the first set.

She was on song at the start of the second set, sprinting into a 3-0 lead with a crucial double break. This could have been due to Yuan having back problems and event getting the physio on court to check her out.

Whatever she did, the massage seemed to have worked a treat with Yuan instantly getting one of the breaks back as Swiatek continued to struggle to get her opponent off her tail. She backed this up with a solid hold to close the deficit to one game.

The Chinese woman even had a solitary chance to get on level terms but was unable to complete this task. Swiatek then had three golden opportunities of er own to go 5-2 ahead, but these were wasted as Yuan proved to continue to be a nuisance. Two games later, and the 24-year-old had her first match point. A wayward shot prevented the match from being wrapped up in that particular moment, but she was able to get the job done two points later.

It was not an easy performance by all means with Yuan causing the six-time Grand Slam all sorts of problems. There will be question marks swirling around Swiatek for the rest of the tournament, with her possibly vulnerable to a higher calibre opponent. However, she was still too strong, and will take on Marie Bouzkova next.