Top seed Halep avoids upset in third round
Unseeded American Davis finally falls in marathon final set.
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA — Top-seeded Simona Halep served for the match four times before prevailing 4-6, 6-4, 15-13 over unseeded American Lauren Davis in a marathon match at Rod Laver Arena.
Halep saved three match points in the 22nd game of the third set at 0-40 and Davis saved five break points in the 23rd game in the 3-hour, 45-minute match. The final set took 2 hour, 22 minutes and Halep won on her first match point when Davis hit a forehand wide along the sideline.
Davis twice had medical timeouts in the final set to have blisters on both feet treated.
Halep will play the winner of today’s later match between local hope Ashleigh Barty and Naomi Osaka.
In other women’s thirdround matches, sixth-seeded Karolina Pliskova beat Lucie Safarova 7-6 (6), 7-5 and No. 8 Caroline Garcia beat Lucie Safarova 6-3, 5-7, 6-2. Garcia will play Madison Keys in the fourth round.
Earlier, against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Nick Kyrgios was in his element in men’s play.
One of his favorite actors — Will Smith was making his Grand Slam debut as a fan — watched as Kyrgios beat childhood hero Tsonga 7-6 (5), 4-6, 7-6 (6), 7-6 (5). The 17th-seeded Kyrgios won the last five points after falling behind 5-2 in the tiebreaker.
For an Australian public desperate to see a first homegrown winner of the men’s national title since 1976, Kyrgios could be the redemption story of the tournament.
“Playing Jo, I was obviously very nervous. He was a guy I looked up to as a kid. Still do,” Kyrgios said.
Then he gave a nod to Smith.
“When I saw him out here I was so nervous. No joke,” Kyrgios said. “People think I’m cool, but I wanted him to think I was the coolest person ever.”
The Kyrgios-Tsonga match pushed top-ranked Rafael Nadal onto the No. 2 court at Melbourne Park for his match against Damir Dzumhur.
The change of scenery worked for Nadal, who lost last year’s final to Roger Federer. Nadal reached the fourth round in Australia for the 11th time with the 6-1, 6-3, 6-1 win. He will next play No. 24 Diego Schwartzman, who beat Aleksandr Dolgopolov 6-7 (1), 6-2, 6-3, 6-3.
The other French Open champion, Jelena Ostapenko, didn’t make it to the second week, losing 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 to 32nd-seeded Anett Kontaveit.
That left only two major champions in the women’s draw. Maria Sharapova meets Angelique Kerber to determine which one.
The youngest player in the tournament and the oldest player in the men’s draw went out on Day 5.
Svitolina, the No. 4 seed, ended Marta Kostyuk’s run with a 6-2, 6-2 victory. Kostyuk, 15 ,entered the tournament ranked 521st. Her wins in the first two rounds made her the youngest player to win main-draw matches at the Australian Open since Martina Hingis in 1996.
Andreas Seppi withstood 52 aces from Ivo Karlovic for a 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-7 (3), 6-7 (5), 9-7 win.
Second-seeded Caroline Wozniacki advanced 6-4, 6-3 over No. 30 Kiki Bertens on her fourth match point.
Thursday’s Games Friday’s Games
(At) Panthers 4, Golden Knights 3 (OT): Aaron Ekblad won it just 40 seconds into overtime as Florida stopped Western Conference leader Vegas. Aleksander Barkov had a short-handed goal and two assists, including one on Ekblad’s winner, and James Reimer had 33 saves.
Canadiens 3, (at) Capitals 2: Max Pacioretty had two goals and an assist, Paul Byron had a goal and an assist, and Antti Niemi made 24 saves in Montreal’s road victory.
Kings at Ducks: Late
NHL notes
Rangers: Defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk will have surgery on his left knee and is expected to be out indefinitely. Shattenkirk, who signed a four-year, $26.6 million deal to come to his hometown team, said Friday he has been playing through an injury all season. He has five goals and 18 assists in 43 games for the Rangers after totaling 13 goals and 43 assists over 80 games for St. Louis and Washington last year.
Penguins: Pittsburgh goalie Casey DeSmith made 28 saves late Thursday at Los Angeles for his first NHL victory, the Penguins’ 3-1 win over the Kings. Patric Hornqvist scored two goals and Evgeni Malkin got the tiebreaking goal early in the third period of Pittsburgh’s fifth win in six games.