MELBOURNE, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- China's Zhang Zhizhen and Czech partner Katerina Siniakova were gallant in defeat in their first round mixed doubles match at the Australian Open on Friday.

Zhang and Siniakova were beaten by the eighth seed duo of Andres Molteni and Asia Muhammad 6-3, 7-6 (2) in 79 minutes on Friday night.

The failure by Zhang and Siniakova to convert any of their three break point chances -- two of which came in the tight second set -- proved decisive in a match that was largely dominated on serve.

The only break of serve came in the fourth game of the first set off the serve of Siniakova from deuce and both duos won over 70 percent of their first serve points for the match.

With Siniakove serving in a high-pressure moment in the second set tied at 5-5, Zhang produced two volley winners from the net for the 6-5 lead.

Muhammad and Molteni responded by holding to love in their own pressure moment to stay in the set and force a tiebreaker.

Zhang won the first point in the tiebreak with a powerful forehand that drew an error before the eighth seed pair won six points in a row from that point to take control and set up five match points.

The first match point was denied by a backhand winner down the line from Zhang, which Muhammad responded to with her own winner to convert the second.

Zhang and another Czech player, Tomas Machac, will play their second round men's doubles match on Saturday against German pair Jakob Schnaitter and Mark Wallner. Enditem

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