Medvedev, Noskova, YastreMska roll oN

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) – Daniil Medvedev is through to the Australian Open quarterfinals along with Dayana Yastremska and Linda Noskova, the latter two players for the first time at a Grand Slam singles tournament.

Medvedev beat Nuno Borges 6-3, 7-6 (4), 5-7, 6-1 Monday to reach the Last 8. He’ll play either No. 9 Hubert Hurkacz or French wildcard entry Arthur Cazaux.

Yastremska beat two-time champion Victoria Azarenka 7-6 (6), 6-4 while 18thranked Elina Svitolina was trailing Noskova 3-0 when Svitolina retired with a back injury.

Carlos Alcaraz raced into a quarterfinal against Alexander Zverev, producing a fearsome display in a straight-sets win over unseeded Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic.

The second seed – seen as the biggest threat to defending champion Novak Djokovic – did not face a single break point in a dominant performance, rolling over his opponent 6-4, 6-4, 6-0 in one hour 49 minutes.

The Spaniard, who chose not to play any competitive tennis in the build-up to the first Grand Slam of the year, said he “did everything perfectly.”

Azarenka served for the first set twice and had two set points at 6-5 but couldn’t take them and Yastremska won the opening set on her second chance after 74 minutes. The Ukrainian then led 3-0 in the second set but Yastremska won six of the next seven games to clinch victory, ending with 37 winners.

“I think I need to take a thousand breaths because my heart I think is going to jump out of my body,” Yastremska said.

There was no handshake, as is the convention between Ukrainian and Russian and Belarusian players, though Yastremska raised her racket toward Azarenka.

The first game of the Noskova-Svitolina match lasted 11 minutes and contained 20 points.