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.
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