Upstart Kostyuk, 15, falls at Aussie Open

MELBOURNE, Australia — Elina Svitolina ended 15year-old Marta Kostyuk’s run at the Australian Open, met her at the net for a warm embrace and offered some words of encouragement.

With the temperature hitting 40 Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) for the second straight day, fourth-seeded Svitolina reached the fourth round at the season-opening major for the first time with the 6-2, 6-2 win at Rod Laver Arena.

“It was sad playing another Ukrainian girl, same country is always tough,” said Svitolina, one of five women in contention for the No. 1 ranking. “She’s a great fighter. She has a great future.”

Kostyuk entered the tournament ranked No. 521 and was the youngest player to win main-draw matches at the Australian Open since Martina Hingis in 1996.

Elise Mertens needed four match points before clinching a 7-5, 6-4 win over Alize Cornet, who needed a medical time out in the second set after complaining of being short of breath.

Big fine for CoCo

CoCo Vandeweghe earned the largest fine of the 2018 Australian Open so far — a $10,000 penalty for unsporting conduct for screaming an obscenity at her first-round opponent, Timea Babos.

Vandeweghe said after the match that she was irritated by what she described as excessive celebrating by her Hungarian opponent during their match. The 10th-seeded Vandeweghe was assessed a code violation for the obscenity and delay of game for insisting on eating a banana during a changeover, getting docked a point in the second set of her 7-6 (4), 6-2 loss.