Maria Sharapova was forced to dig deep, saving two match points, before booking a spot in the third round of the Australian Open.

The world No. 2 looked on track for a regulation win after taking the first set 6-1, but Alexandra Panova – ranked 150 in the world – came back hard to win the next 6-4.

• Matosevic, Duckworth crash out of Open
• Rafter, Stolle warn ‘cheeky’ Kyrgios over behaviour
• Stosur, Dellacqua, Hewitt march into second round
• Lleyton Hewitt shows his age, but no less grit

Sharapova was staring down the barrel of an early exit from the tournament when Panova served for the match at 5-4 in the third, but the second seed successfully saved two match points and won the next three games for the win.

Sharapova won the match 6-1 4-6 7-5 in two hours and 31 minutes.

Panova led 4-1 in the final set and then held a pair of match points in the 10th game, both of which Sharapova saved with clean forehand winners.

Twenty-five-year-old Panova had not even won a match at grand slam level until she beat Romania’s Sorana Cirstea two days ago.

Sharapova twice double-faulted on break point in the second set and also struggled with her serve early in the decider before regaining the initiative in the nick of time.

“I was dwelling too much on my mistakes, what I was doing wrong, not really being in the present, something that I’m really usually good at,” Sharapova said.
”

“At that point, when you’re behind and you feel like you’re making a lot of errors, you don’t feel like you have a good rhythm out there.

“I just really tried to take it a point at a time, think positively and change my thought process.”

Panova acknowledged she had let slip a golden opportunity.

“She came up with the good shots, with the winners, but what could I do?” said the qualifier.

“I should have played even better to keep the momentum.
 But she’s a great fighter, a great champion.

“To take it from her, you really need something extra.”

Sharapova set up a third-round encounter against another opponent she knows very little about – Kazakhstan’s No.31 seed Zarina Diyas, who beat Slovakia’s Anna Schmiedlova 3-6 6-2 8-6.

Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard looms as the world No.2’s first big-name challenger after the seventh seed thrashed Dutchwoman Kiki Berterns 6-0 6-3 in her second-round match.

Russian Katerina Makarova, the No.10 seed, also won through to the third round with a minimum of fuss on Wednesday, beating Italian veteran Roberta Vinci 6-2 6-4.

Her reward was a third-round clash with in-form No.22 Karolina Pliskova from the Czech Republic, who was pushed all the way by teenaged French wildcard Oceane Dodin before winning 7-5 5-7 6-4.

Italian No.14 seed Sara Errani did enough to see off the challenge of Spaniard Silvia Soler-Espinosa and win 7-6 (7-3) 6-3.

Late-blooming Peng Shuai from China became the first player through to the third round.

The 21st seed trounced Magdalena Rybarikova from Slovakia 6-1 6-1 in the opening match on Wednesday on Hisense Arena.

The 28-year-old Peng recorded her best grand slam result at last year’s US Open when she advanced to the semi-finals before going down to former world No.1 Caroline Wozniacki.