Teenaged rising tennis star Ashleigh Barty has made a bright start in her bid to win a second straight Australian Open wildcard.

The 16-year-old Queenslander, seeded second for this week’s Open wildcard play-off at Melbourne Park, started her campaign by blitzing Canberra’s Ashley Keir 6-1 6-2 in less than an hour on Tuesday.

Barty won the wildcard play-off last year, when she beat Victoria’s Olivia Rogowska in the final.

But top seed Rogowska won’t be around for this year’s final, after fellow Victorian Tammi Patterson ousted her 7-6 (7-3) 6-3 in the first round.

Barty will face West Australian Bojana Bobusic in Thursday’s quarter-finals.

Also through to the last eight are Jessica Moore (WA), Monique Adamczak (NSW), Arina Rodionova (Vic), Priscilla Hon (Qld) and Viktorija Rajicic (Vic).

The men’s quarter-finals are on Wednesday, with the winners of Sunday’s men’s and women’s finals to each earn entry to January’s grand slam event.

AAP scl/gc/wk