Sabalenka advances in rout
Defending champ on to fourth round
MELBOURNE — Defending champion Aryna Sabalenka reached the fourth round of the Australian Open on Friday with a 6-0, 6-0 demolition of Lesia Tsurenko.
The second-seeded Belarusian, who won her first Grand Slam title here 12 months ago, needed just 52 minutes for victory at the Rod Laver Arena. She has dropped just six games in three rounds so far.
“Last year, Iga [Swiatek] won so many sets 6-0 and this is one of the goals, to try to get closer to her,” Sabalenka joked. “I’m just super happy with the level I’m playing so far. Hopefully I can just keep going like that or even better."
The pair did not shake hands — as is the convention for Ukrainian players against opponents from Russia or Belarus — but Tsurenko congratulated Sabalenka verbally.
Sabalenka will play Amanda Anisimova, who continued her comeback with a 7-5, 6-4 win over Paula Badosa. Anisimova, who took seven months out of the game last year for mental health reasons, hit 40 winners on her way to the fourth round.
“It’s quite unbelievable,” the American said. “For sure taking a step away from the game . . . gave me a new perspective. I’m trying to be in the present. I think in the past I was getting too caught up in the past and the future.”
Sabalenka said she expects a tough battle against Anisimova, who has won four of their five matches.
“She’s an incredible player and I’m really happy to see her back,” Sabalenka said.
Men’s No. 4 Jannik Sinner moved into the fourth round without losing a set, thanks to a dominant 6-0, 6-1, 6-3 victory over Sebastian Baez.
The Italian won 18 of 25 points at the net as he set up a fourth-round clash with either 15th-seeded Karen Khachanov or Tomas Machac.
No. 4 Coco Gauff continues her quest for a second successive slam title when she plays another American, Alycia Parks, on Friday.
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Her hand and legs were shaking, she’d missed nine match points but also saved six, and Anna Blinkova was 41 points into a wild tiebreaker that was the longest ever in a women’s Grand Slam event.
Elena Rybakina, last year’s Australian Open runner-up, was just as anxious on the other side of the net.
When Blinkova lunged to retrieve a backhand, aiming just to keep the rally alive, and Rybakina’s next backhand sailed wide, it finished off a 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (20) second-round victory Thursday that she’ll never forget.
“It took me courage,” she said. “It took me some certain calmness to stay in the present moment and to play point by point no matter what happens.”
Rybakina, the 2022 Wimbledon champion who was runner-up here last year to Aryna Sabalenka, saved two match points in a third set that contained six service breaks.
Blinkova twice served for the match but couldn’t finish it off, and a double-fault in the 12th game sent it to a 10-point tiebreaker. Once there, 13 minutes after her first match points, Blinkova had two more points at 9-7, but again Rybakina saved them, and so it went on.
Blinkova, smiling, later described it as the “endless tiebreaker.” It went on for 32 minutes until Rybakina’s backhand error ended it.
In terms of points — 42 — it was the longest tiebreaker ever in a women’s major.
“It was super tough. I had so many match points,” said Blinkova, who is ranked 57 th and had 13 firstround exits in her previous 20 majors.
Daniil Medvedev had to rally from two sets down to beat Emil Ruusuvuori, 3-6, 6-7 (1), 6-4, 7-6 (1), 6-0, in a 4-hour-23-minute match that ended at 3:39 a.m. local time.
Day 5 started with top-ranked Swiatek rallying from 4-1 down in the third set to beat 2022 runner-up Danielle Collins, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.
In her on-court interview, she joked: “Honestly, I was on the airport already. But I wanted to fight to the end. I’m really proud of myself.”
Collins announced that 2024 would be her last season on tour.
Swiatek, a four-time major winner, faces No. 50-ranked Linda Noskova, who beat US qualifier McCartney Kessler, 6-3, 1-6, 6-4.
Fifth-ranked Jessica Pegula’s run of three consecutive quarterfinals in Australia ended in a 6-4, 6-2 loss to Clara Burel. Her fellow American, 2017 US Open winner Sloane Stephens, took out No. 14 seed Daria Kasatkina, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3.
Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz dropped a set for the first time in the tournament before recovering to beat Lorenzo Sonego, 6-4, 6-7 (3), 6-3, 7-6 (3).
Alcaraz will next face 18-year-old Chinese wild-card entry Shang Juncheng, who ousted India’s Sumit Nagal, 2-6, 6-3, 7-5, 6-4.