Two-time Grand Slam champion Simona Halep is into Week 2 at Melbourne Park for the fifth consecutive 12 months.
She’ll be joined within the second week by second-seeded Aryna Sabalenka, who superior with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 win Saturday over No. 31 Marketa Vondrousova.
A contender for the No. 1 rating — Sabalenka can probably overtake Ash Barty relying on outcomes right here — the 23-year-old from Belarus admits her serve remains to be a piece in progress.
The match began ominously, when Sabalenka had two double-faults and was damaged within the first recreation.
However in contrast to the earlier spherical, when she had 9 double-faults in her first two service video games and 19 within the match, the semifinalist final 12 months at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open managed to virtually halve that obvious statistic.
“I’m actually completely satisfied proper now,“ Sabalenka mentioned, laughing, in her on-court TV interview. “Largely I’m completely satisfied I made solely 10 double-faults.”
It’s one thing she’ll be engaged on forward of her subsequent match towards No. 115-ranked Kaia Kanepi, who has reached the quarterfinals six instances at Grand Slam occasions — however solely as soon as since 2013 and by no means in Australia.
The 14th-seeded Halep superior with a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Danka Kovinic, a participant who's ranked 98th and eradicated U.S. Open champion Emma Raducanu within the earlier spherical.
This was Kovinic’s first look within the third spherical of a serious.
Halep, in contrast, can rely on loads of expertise within the latter levels of the game’s largest occasions. She gained the French Open in 2018 and Wimbledon in 2019 and made it to the ultimate of the 2018 Australian Open earlier than shedding to Caroline Wozniacki.
“I really feel good, I really feel extra assured now as a result of final 12 months was a tricky 12 months,” Halep mentioned. “So now I simply get pleasure from enjoying tennis, I’m completely satisfied.”
Not one of the different gamers remaining the ladies’s draw has gained as many tour-level titles as Halep’s 23.
Halep’s subsequent opponent will probably be Alize Cornet, who celebrated her thirty second birthday with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 victory over No. 29 Tamara Zidansek, a 2021 French Open semifinalist.
Cornet adopted up her upset of No. 3 Garbine Muguruza by reaching the fourth spherical on the Australian Open for the primary time since 2009.
In one other third-round match ending Saturday afternoon, Twenty seventh-seeded Danielle Collins of the U.S. rallied from a set and a break all the way down to beat 19-year-old Clara Tauson 4-6, 6-4, 7-5.
Collins will subsequent meet No. 19 Elise Mertens, who superior 6-2, 6-2 over Zhang Shuai.
Afterward Day 6, U.S. Open champion Daniil Medvedev was aiming to progress in his bid to change into the primary man within the Open period to win his second Grand Slam title on the main match that instantly follows his first such triumph.
Medvedev was the runner-up at Melbourne Park in 2021 and is seeded No. 2 this time.
He would possibly in addition to have a No. 1 subsequent to his title, as a result of top-ranked Novak Djokovic by no means performed some extent this 12 months after failing in his try to get into the match regardless of not being vaccinated towards COVID-19.
Medvedev confronted 57th-ranked Botic van de Zandschulp on Saturday at Rod Laver Area.
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