RYBAKINA IS ON MARCH TO AUSTRALIAN OPEN GLORY

• SNUBBED at the start of the tournament by being exiled to the outside courts, Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina may yet end up having the last laugh at the Australian Open. The low-key winner of last year’s tournament without ranking points at SW19 is into the quarter-finals of another wide open women’s draw. The Moscow-born Kazakh, seeded No 22, blew the field apart when she upset the dominant player of the WTA Tour, Iga Swiatek, 6-4, 6-4 to make the last eight. That made this the first Grand Slam in the Open era when the top two seeds in both singles events have gone out before the last eight. Rybakina (above) now faces Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko, who beat Coco Gauff 7-5, 6-3.