Kontaveit, the 16th seed at the tournament, overcame Julia Grabher in the opening round in Melbourne, in a match held up due to the heat on court.

She and Linette, ranked 45th in the world, had met six times prior to Thursday's clash, with Kontaveit emerging victorious from the most recent encounter, at the U.S. Open in 2020.

After having her service broken in game five, Kontaveit immediately returned the favor in the next game, while in a protracted eighth game, the Estonian held on to her serve, breaking in the very next game to take the set 6.3.

However, after starting set two with a break also, Kontaveit fell behind as the Polish player strung together four games in-a-row en route to losing the set with the same scoreline as she had won the first.

Linette had found her momentum in the decider as she broke the Estonian's serve two more times, soon taking the scoreline to 5:1. While Kontaveit fought back, breaking Linette's service once more, this was not enough to prevent her winning one more service game and take the set 6:4, and with it the match.

Linette served up seven aces and committed two double faults, to Kontaveit's two and four respectively.

She will face Ekaterina Alexandrova in round three, the second time the Polish player has progressed that far in Melbourne.

Estonia's Kaia Kanepi had gone out of the tournament in round one.

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