Carlos Alcaraz yesterday stepped up his quest to win a maiden Australian Open as he overwhelmed showman Corentin Moutet to reach the last 16, while Taiwan’s Wu Fang-hsien and Hsieh Su-wei both advanced to the last 16 of the women’s doubles.
Three-time finalist Daniil Medvedev battled through on day six at a warm and sunny Melbourne Park, as did Coco Gauff.
Top seed Alcaraz was never in danger against French 32nd seed Moutet, easing through 6-2, 6-4, 6-1 at Rod Laver Arena in 2 hours, 5 minutes.
Photo: EPA
It was the Spaniard’s 100th Grand Slam match and he boasts a remarkable 87-13 win-loss record, matching the legendary Bjorn Borg at the same stage of his career.
Victory thrust Alcaraz into a clash for a place in the quarter-finals with American 19th seed Tommy Paul, who progressed when Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina retired with an apparent knee injury when two sets down.
“It wasn’t easy. To be honest, when you play someone like Corentin you don’t know what’s going to be next, but I had fun on the court,” said the 22-year-old Alcaraz, who is attempting to clinch the one major missing from his collection. “I think we both pulled off great shots, great points.”
In the women’s singles, Aryna Sabalenka said she was “all over the place” in victory.
Top seed Sabalenka did not have it easy against unseeded Russian-born Anastasia Potapova of Austria, pulling through 7-6 (7/4), 7-6 (9/7) in just over two nervy hours.
The Belarusian is trying to win the title for a third time in four years, having been stunned in last year’s final by Madison Keys.
“I was always on the back foot, one of those days you have to fight to try and get the ball back,” the world No. 1 said.
“Emotionally, I was all over the place,” added the 27-year-old four-time Grand Slam champion, who faces Canadian teenager Victoria Mboko in the last 16. “It was such a fight and I really enjoyed it.”
Mboko defeated Clara Tauson of Denmark 7-6 (7/5), 5-7, 6-3.
Gauff, the third seed, plays 19th seed Karolina Muchova next after beating fellow American Hailey Baptiste 3-6, 6-0, 6-3.
The 21-year-old Gauff has won the US Open and French Open, but her best performance in Melbourne is the semi-finals.
Russia’s 11th seed Medvedev faces 25th seed Learner Tien of the US in the last 16.
It is a rematch of their late-night five-set epic last year, when the youngster stunned Medvedev in the second round in a match that finished just before 3am.
The gutsy Medvedev fought back from two sets down against unseeded Fabian Marozsan of Hungary.
The 2021 US Open champion, who had a wretched record at the majors last year, scraped through 6-7 (5/7), 4-6, 7-5, 6-0, 6-3 in 3 hours, 43 minutes.
It was the fifth time in his career that the former world No. 1 has come back from two sets down to win a match.
“Five sets again,” he wrote afterward on the on-court camera.
In the second round of the women’s doubles, Taiwan’s Wu and Eri Hozumi of Japan defeated Sabrina Santamaria of the US and Maria Kozyreva of Russia 6-2, 6-3 to advance the the last 16.
Also advancing were third seeds Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, who had a walkover after Olga Danilovic of Serbia and Anastasia Potapova of Russia pulled out.
In the men’s doubles, Taiwan’s Ray Ho and Hendrik Jebens of Germany were beaten 6-7 (6/8), 6-4, 6-4 by Luke Johnson of Britain and Jan Zielinski of Poland.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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