No. 1 Halep beats Davis in marathon
MELBOURNE, Australia — Top-ranked Simona Halep saved three match points and finally fended off Lauren Davis 4-6, 6-4, 15-13 in a 3 hour, 45 minute marathon Saturday to reach the fourth round of the Australian Open.
The third set took 2:22 and, after wasting three previous chances to serve out the match, Halep converted on her first match point when Davis hit a forehand wide.
Davis had two medical timeouts in the third set for treatment on both feet, including a break after blowing three match points from 0-40 on Halep’s serve in the 22nd game.
“Definitely was a very tough match, so long,” said Halep, who has twice reached the final at the French Open but never won a Grand Slam singles title. “I never played the third set so long, so I’m really happy I could stay and win it. I’m almost dead.”
It equaled the longest women’s singles match at the Australian Open in terms of games played — Chanda Rubin’s win over Arantxa Shanchez Vicario in 1996 was also 48 games — but was almost an hour shorter in duration than the record 4:44 that Francesca Schiavone needed to beat Svetlana Kuznetsova in 2011.
Halep will play the winner of Saturday’s later match between local hope Ashleigh Barty and Naomi Osaka.
U.S. Open finalist Madison Keys advanced 6-3, 6-4 over Ana Bogdan and will next play No. 8 Caroline Garcia, who beat Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-3, 5-7, 6-2.
Sixth-seeded Karolina Pliskova had 11 aces and beat No. 29 Lucie Safarova 7-6 (6), 7-5.
Earlier, No. 2-ranked Caroline Wozniacki advanced 6-4, 6-3 over No. 30 Kiki Bertens.
In men’s action, fifthseeded Dominic Thiem advanced by beating Adrian Mannarino 6-4, 6-2, 7-5.
Rafael Nadal reached the fourth round in Australia for the 11th time with a 6-1, 6-3, 6-1 win against Damir Dzumhur.
Nadal next plays No. 24 Diego Schwartzman.
Local hope Nick Kyrgios beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, taking the last five points in the tiebreaker for a 7-6 (5), 4-6, 7-6 (6), 7-6 (5) victory.
Marin Cilic reached the fourth round for the first time in seven years with a 7-6 (4), 6-3, 7-6 (4) win over American Ryan Harrison.