Botic van de Zandschulp is through to the second round of the Australian Open by knocking out the 27th seed, Brandon Nakashima, in straight sets.

Van de Zandschulp, ranked 75th in the world, got off to a strong start, winning the opening set 6-3.

Nakashima took the second set 6-4, but the Dutchman won two tie-breaks in a row to book a second-round meeting with the 20-year-old Chinese player, Shang Juncheng, who caused an upset of his own against the Spanish veteran Robert Bautista-Agut.

It is the first time the 31-year-old Van de Zandschulp has survived the first round of the opening Grand Slam tournament of the year since 2023, when he was beaten by fellow Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor in round two.

De Jong out

Jesper de Jong lost in straight sets to the former world number one and three-times Melbourne finalist Danil Medvedev.

De Jong put up a strong fight in the third set, breaking Medvedev’s serve at 6-5 down to force a tie-break, but the Russian 11th seed proved too strong, winning the decider 7-2.

Griekspoor, the only seeded Dutch player in the tournament, will take on the American world number 80 Ethan Quinn, and will need to improve on his first-round defeat in the Adelaide International tournament last week.

Griekspoor was the fourth seed for the warm-up competition, but lost 6-4 6-1 in just 80 minutes to French player Ugo Humbert.

The only Dutch woman in the singles competition in Melbourne, Suzanne Lamens, lost in three sets to Griekspoor’s partner, Anastasia Potapova, who was born in Russia but now has an Austrian passport.

Lamens won the first set 6-3 and was 5-1 up in the second, but won just three more games as Potapova staged a dramatic comeback to win 3-6 7-5 6-2.