Hard-hitting Aryna Sabalenka yesterday burnished her Australian Open title credentials as she barreled into the round-of-16 along with several other women’s seeds, while Taiwan’s Latisha Chan crashed out of the women’s doubles.
The Belarusian fifth seed blew away 26th seed Elise Mertens 6-2, 6-3 to set up a clash with Olympic champion Belinda Bencic.
Karolina Pliskova, the 30th seed, and 23rd seed Zhang Shuai also went through in straight sets at Melbourne Park and will clash in the fourth round.
Photo: AFP
Sabalenka is building a head of steam in her pursuit of a first Grand Slam title.
The Minsk-born 24-year-old teased the Margaret Court Arena crowd for supporting Belgium’s Mertens over her, but said she was enjoying the ride into the second week.
Sabalenka is trying not to get carried away.
“About the favorite, that I am on that favorite list... I mean, it’s really good that I’m there, but I better focus on myself, on my game, make sure that my dream will happen,” said the Belarusian, who is yet to drop a set.
Bencic has also not dropped a set in Melbourne. The Swiss 12th seed eased past unseeded Italian Camila Giorgi 6-2, 7-5.
“Sabalenka is a very aggressive player, has a lot of power,” said Bencic, herself a big server and hard hitter.
Pliskova, the former world No. 1 from the Czech Republic, defeated Varvara Gracheva of Russia 6-4, 6-2.
She faces China’s Zhang, a 6-3, 6-2 victor over Katie Volynets of the US.
Also into the fourth round was 17-year-old Linda Fruhvirtova, who beat her fellow Czech Marketa Vondrousova in three sets. She faces Donna Vekic of Croatia.
In the second round of the women’s doubles, Taiwan’s Chan and Alexa Guarachi of Chile crashed to a 6-1, 6-0 defeat to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia and Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan.
In the men’s singles, fifth seed Andrey Rublev surged into a round-of-16 clash with Holger Rune — then thanked his beaten opponent Dan Evans for giving him a banana mid-match.
The Russian crushed the Briton 6-4, 6-2, 6-3 to make the fourth round for a third time.
He faces Danish teenager Rune for a place in the quarter-finals after the ninth seed survived a nasty fall to sweep past unseeded Frenchman Ugo Humbert 6-4, 6-2, 7-6 (7/5).
Friend and 25th seed Evans threw a banana to Rublev at a changeover when he ran out.
“I didn’t ask him, I asked the ball boy, but Danny asked for bananas earlier and he had two so he just said: ‘Take it,’ and I caught it,” Rublev said. “He helped me with some energy, for sure.”
Also through was Alex de Minaur after the Australian 22nd seed saw off Benjamin Bonzi of France 7-6 (7/0), 6-2, 6-1.
In two all-American matches, Jeffrey Wolf strolled past Michael Mmoh in three sets, while Tommy Paul made equally light work of Jenson Brooksby.
A seven-year-old horse had to be euthanized on Friday after breaking its back on the final fence of a Grand National steeplechase race that it won despite sustaining the serious injury. It follows the death of four horses at the Cheltenham Festival last month — including one after the prestigious Gold Cup. Gold Dancer was competing in the Mildmay Novices’ Chase during Ladies Day at Aintree’s Grand National Festival. The horse managed to cross the finish line approximately four lengths ahead of runner-up Regent’s Stroll. “The winner of our second race of the day, Gold Dancer, was pulled up after
Taiwanese gymnast Tang Chia-hung on Sunday topped the men’s horizontal bar event at the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) World Cup in Osijek, Croatia, scoring 15.233 to take his third title this season. Tang delivered an outstanding performance in the final, earning a difficulty score of 6.500 and an execution score of 8.633 with a 0.1 stick bonus. His closest competitor was Milad Karimi of Kazakhstan, who finished second with 14.933 points. It was Tang’s third gold medal in the FIG World Cup series this year, following his horizontal bar wins in Azerbaijan on March 8, and in Turkey on March
The Daredevils yesterday took eight catches in the final as they eked out a victory in the Taiwan Cricket Triangular Tournament against PCCT at Yingfeng Cricket Ground in Taipei’s Songshan District. PCCT’s batting lineup collapsed after they asked the Daredevils to bowl in the T20 decider of the weekend tournament that also involved the Formosa Cricket Club. PCCT were bundled out for 76 in 16.2 overs against a disciplined Daredevils attack. Ninad Malwade was the top scorer in the innings with 21, but he was among those who offered chances to the fielders. Shane Ferreira and Jason Cameron took three wickets each, with
OBJECTIVE REACHED: ’Now for us, it’s about getting healthy, making sure everybody is ready to go, and we can ramp up,’ the Atlanta Hawks’ C.J. McCollum said after the game The Atlanta Hawks on Friday secured an NBA playoff berth with a 124-102 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers as the Boston Celtics locked up the Eastern Conference second seed with a lopsided win of their own. C.J. McCollum scored a game-high 29 points for the Hawks, who came into the contest at sixth in the East and still in danger of falling into the play-in tournament that would see the seventh-through 10th-placed teams battle for the last two playoff berths in each conference. Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Jalen Johnson scored 18 points apiece, and Dyson Daniels added a triple-double of 13
RSS