Tennis: Top seeds crash out in women's singles draw at Australian Open

Belinda Bencic reacts during her thrashing at the Australian Open. Photo / Getty

The Australian Open women's singles draw has been absolutely decimated after 24 hours of carnage.

Second seed Karolina Pliskova and No 6 seed Belinda Bencic continued the extraordinary series of upsets at Melbourne Park on Saturday when they were both bundled out in straight sets – leaving just five of the top 10 women's seeds still standing.

Incredibly, all ten of the top seeds made it through to the third round, before Serena Williams, Naomi Osaka, Madison Keys, Pliskova and Bencic all fell in the span of 24 hours.

Pliskova was the first to be sent packing from the 2020 Australian Open at the hands of 30th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova on Saturday.

The underdog took control of the match early on as she raced away to a 4-1 lead in the first set before Pliskova fought back to force an opening set tiebreak.

The second set was a back and forth arm wrestle as both refused to take a backwards step.

Another tiebreaker unfolded with Pavlyuchenkova getting the upper hand and moving on where she'll take on 17th seed Angelique Kerber.

Pavlyuchenkova's dominance was clear and the numbers after the contest showed how stark it was, with Pavlyuchenkova hitting 43 groundstroke winners compared to Pliskova's 19.

Pavlyuchenkova had never beaten Pliskova in their six previous meetings, but held her nerve in the tense second set tiebreak to secure the 7-6 7-6 victory after a two hours and 25 minute battle.

Pliskova was also previously unbeaten in 2020, having won the season-opening Brisbane International and then two more matches in Melbourne.

Then, just a few minutes later, Bencic fell to Anett Kontaveit in a 6-0 6-1 mauling that lasted just 49 minutes.

The latest upsets makes it nine out of the top 16 women's seeds being eliminated.

The carnage includes three of the four favourites with bookmakers after Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka were bundled out on Friday.

Only Aussie Ash Barty is still standing.

Another one gone... Belinda Bencic [6] out!

In the past 24 hours, 5 of the women's top 10 seeds have been knocked out of the #AusOpen.

❌No.2 Pliskova
❌No.3 Osaka
❌No.6 Bencic
❌No.8 Williams
❌No.10 Keys.

— Shane McInnes (@shanemcinnes) January 25, 2020

The women’s draw at the Australian Open continues to be carnage. Pliskova out.

— Dan Wolken (@DanWolken) January 25, 2020