The Latest: Osaka advances to 4th round at Australian Open
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — The Latest on Saturday at the Australian Open (all times local):
12:40 a.m.
Lucas Pouille ended the run of 19-year-old Australian wild-card entry Alexei Popyrin by holding on to edge him 7-6 (3), 6-3, 6-7 (10), 4-6, 6-3 in the third round.
The 28th-seeded Pouille, who is coached by Amelie Mauresmo, wasted a set point at 8-7 in the third-set tiebreaker, but eventually pulled out the victory in 3 hours, 43 minutes.
Popyrin was trying to become just the eighth wild card to get to the fourth round in men’s singles at the Australian Open during the 50-year professional era.
Pouille now faces No. 11 Borna Coric.
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12:10 a.m.
Alex Popyrin, a 19-year-old Australian ranked 149th, has saved a match point and taken No. 28 seed Lucas Pouille of France to a fifth set.
Popyrin is trying to become just the eighth wild-card entry to get to the fourth round in men’s singles at the Australian Open during the 50-year professional era.
Pouille, who is coached by Amelie Mauresmo, took the opening two sets 7-6 (3), 6-3, but Popyrin came back to grab the next two, 7-6 (10), 6-4.
In the third-set tiebreaker, Pouille was one point from winning while ahead 8-7, but he missed a backhand.
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11:50 p.m.
Karolina Pliskova has reached the fourth round at the Australian Open for the third year in a row.
The 2016 U.S. Open runner-up and No. 7 seed eliminated 27th-seeded Camila Giorgi 6-4, 3-6, 6-2.
Pliskova will face two-time major champion Garbine Muguruza for a quarterfinal berth.
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9:30 p.m.
Two-time major champion Garbine Muguruza got to enjoy a much earlier start — and much earlier finish — at the Australian Open this time.
One round after playing a match that began at 12:30 a.m. and ended after 3 a.m., Muguruza’s workday was done before bedtime thanks to a far more reasonable schedule and a straightforward 7-6 (5), 6-2 victory over Timea Bacsinszky.
This one was underway before 7:30 p.m. and was done by about 9:15 p.m.
The 18th-seeded Muguruza’s previous outing, a three-setter against Johanna Konta, is believed to have been the first Australian Open singles match to start after midnight.
In the fourth round, Muguruza will take on either 2016 U.S. Open runner-up Karolina Pliskova or No. 27 seed Camila Giorgi.
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9:05 p.m.
Alexander Zverev is through to the fourth round at the Australian Open after beating Australian wild-card entry Alex Bolt 6-3, 6-3, 6-2.
Bolt upset 29th-seeded Gilles Simon in five sets in the second round.
The fourth-seeded Zverev next plays 2016 Wimbledon runner-up Milos Raonic.
Raonic earlier beat Pierre-Hugues Herbert in straight sets.
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8:35 p.m.
Simona Halep beat one Williams sister at the Australian Open and now will face the other.
The No. 1-seeded Halep, last year’s runner-up at Melbourne Park, reeled off six consecutive games in one stretch and ended up beating Venus Williams 6-2, 6-3 in the third round.
Next for Halep is a showdown against 23-time major champion Serena Williams with a quarterfinal berth at stake.
Says Halep: “It’s going to be a bigger challenge. I am ready to face it.”
After two tough three-set tussles in Australia, Halep had a much easier time of things Saturday and made only 12 unforced errors, while Venus made 33. Halep played with her left thigh taped, but moved around the court well.
For Venus, this is the fifth consecutive Grand Slam tournament she exits before the fourth round.
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8 p.m.
It was 5 in the afternoon and Novak Djokovic couldn’t understand why the lights had been turned on at Rod Laver Arena while the sun was still shining brightly.
He was in the latter stages of a third-round match against Denis Shapovalov, and he was unhappy enough to ask the umpire and then a tournament official what was going on.
“As I said on the court, I don’t remember having lights in the past years at 5 p.m.,” Djokovic said. “Maybe I’m wrong, maybe not. I just felt with such a low position of the sun, the lights being switched on at 5 p.m. was completely unnecessary. It was very bright. There was no reason for the lights.”
The answer Djokovic got was that television wanted them on.
“Whatever TV says, we have to respect I guess.” Djokovic said.
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6:35 p.m.
Virat Kohli made a quick transition from cricket to tennis to meet with Roger Federer and watch Novak Djokovic in action at the Australian Open.
Kohli was at Melbourne Park on Saturday, a day after leading India to another series victory against Australia at the nearby Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Kohli’s No. 1-ranked lineup beat Australia 2-1 in the four-match test series and followed it up with a comeback 2-1 victory in the limited-overs series.
He posed for photographs with Roger Federer, and watched in the VIP section on Rod Laver Arena when top-ranked Djokovic beat Canada’s Denis Shapovalov in the third round.
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6:25 p.m.
Novak Djokovic extended his Grand Slam winning streak against left-handers with a 6-3, 6-4, 4-6, 6-0 win over Denis Shapovalov in the third round of the Australian Open.
The win guaranteed that Djokovic would keep his No. 1 ranking after the Australian Open. Rafael Nadal could have taken the top ranking if he won the tournament and Djokovic lost before the fourth round
Djokovic has won 18 consecutive matches against lefties since being beaten by Nadal in the French Open final in 2014. Overall, Djokovic has a 32-11 record against left-handers in majors.
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6:15 p.m.
Even Roger Federer needs a photo ID to get where he’s going at the Australian Open.
So what if he’s a six-time champion at Melbourne Park … the owner of 20 Grand Slam titles in all … a man who’s spent more weeks ranked No. 1 than any other … and one of the most famous athletes on the planet?
Rules are rules, after all.
A video showing Federer stopped by a security guard in a hallway outside a locker room at the Grand Slam tournament is making the rounds on Twitter, drawing a mix of amazement and amusement.
In the clip, the guard is seen indicating to Federer that he is missing his tournament accreditation pass.
Eventually, after he’s joined by members of his entourage, Federer is allowed to go through the door.
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5:30 p.m.
Milos Raonic eased to a 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (6) win over Pierre-Hugues Herbert to move into the fourth round of the Australian Open for the sixth time.
It came after Raonic had two tough opening matches with Nick Kyrgios and 2014 champion Stan Warwinka.
Raonic swept to 3-0 and 5-1 leads in the tiebreaker but Herbert rallied to level at 5-5. Herbert saved one match point before Raonic clinched the 2-hour, 1-minute match with an ace.
Raonic will play the winner of the later match between fourth-seeded Alexander Zverev and Alex Bolt.
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5:15 p.m.
Madison Keys has reached the second week of the Australian Open for the fourth time with a 6-3, 6-2 win over No. 12-seeded Elise Mertens.
Keys, a semifinalist here in 2015 and runner-up at the 2017 U.S. Open, converted four of her seven break points and saved seven of the eight she faced against Mertens.
“I’m definitely very happy with how I played today — especially how I served and got out of some could-be-bad situations,” she said.
The No. 17 seed didn’t play any warm-up tournaments before the season’s first major and says “I’m feeling a lot better now that I’ve had three wins.”
She has reached the semifinals at three of the last five Grand Slam events. Her opponent in the fourth round will be sixth-seeded Elina Svitolina, who came back from 3-0 down in the third set to beat Zhang Shuai 4-6, 6-4, 7-5.
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4:30 p.m.
Ash Barty has withdrawn from the women’s doubles on the eve of her fourth-round singles match against 2008 Australian Open champion Maria Sharapova.
Barty, who is seeded 15th in singles, teamed with two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka in doubles.
They beat No.16-seeded Peng Shuai and Yang Zhaoxuan in the first round but withdrew ahead of Saturday’s scheduled match against Alison Riske and Jennifer Brady on Court 3, giving the American pair a walkover into the third round.
Australian Open organizers said Barty, who is into the fourth round at her home Grand Slam for the first time, had a mild muscle strain.
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3:45 p.m.
Kei Nishikori got through the third round in straight sets against Joao Sousa, getting a bit of relief after his first two matches at Melbourne Park went to five sets.
The eighth-seeded Nishikori had a 7-6 (6), 6-1, 6-2 win on Margaret Court Arena right after Naomi Osaka’s three-set comeback win over Hsieh Su-wei.
Nishikori, the 2014 U.S. Open finalist, fended off 59 aces from 39-year-old Ivo Karlovic in the second round before winning the fifth-set tiebreaker 10-7.
Sousa had also advanced through two five-setters and needed a medical time out in the third set.
The last time Nishikori won consecutive matches in five sets at a major was at the U.S. Open in 2014, when he beat Milos Raonic and Stan Wawrinka in five on the way to his semifinal win over Novak Djokovic.
It was Nishikori’s third straight game on Margaret Court Arena, and he said he enjoyed the vibe — particularly after playing after fellow Japanese player Osaka, the U.S. Open champion.
“Forehand has been working very well. Second and third sets I was playing really aggressive, and everything was working well,” he said.
He has reached the fourth round in Australia for the seventh time and is on a roll after winning the season-opening tournament in Brisbane.
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3:40 p.m.
Seven-time champion Serena Williams has advanced to the fourth round at Melbourne Park with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Dayana Yastremska.
The 16th-seeded Williams has now won 20 consecutive sets at Melbourne Park, having not dropped a set in her 2017 title run and winning three rounds here this year in straight sets. She did not play here in 2018 following the birth of her daughter.
Yamstremska received treatment during a medical timeout after she turned her right ankle while stretching to return a shot in the fifth game of the second set.
Williams won her 84th match at Melbourne Park, which is more than any other woman in Australian Open history. She has lost just 10 matches in 18 appearances at the tournament.
Williams, attempting to win a record 24th Grand Slam singles title, will next play either her sister Venus or top-seeded Simona Halep, who play later Saturday.
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2:15 p.m.
Sixth-seeded Elina Svitolina came back from 3-0 down in the third set to beat Zhang Shuai 4-6, 6-4, 7-5 in the third round at Melbourne Park.
Both players took medical timeouts during the almost three-hour match.
Zhang took a medical time out after the second set ended and again after the fifth game of the final set when Svitolina was trailing 3-2. Zhang had received frequent treatment between games as well for a right shoulder or back ailment.
Svitolina broke Zhang’s serve in the sixth game to level the set at 3-3, then fended off two break points in the following game before holding to lead 4-3.
Svitolina served for the match at 5-4 but Zhang broke to extend it. Svitolina hit a backhand passing shot to clinch the 11th game and take a 6-5 lead, then broke Zhang’s serve in the final game, clinching the 2-hour, 55-minute match when Zhang hit a forehand into the net.
Svitolina will play either Elise Mertens or Madison Keys in the fourth round.
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1:30 p.m.
In the year he’s celebrating the 50th anniversary since he completed the Grand Slam of winning all majors in one season, tennis great Rod Laver has taken to social media to praise teenager Alex de Minaur for his Australian Open performance against Rafael Nadal.
A photograph he posted on his Twitter feed on Saturday, a day after de Minaur was beaten in three sets by Nadal in the third round, showed Australian Davis Cup captain Lleyton Hewitt with de Minaur on the day the teenager was first selected for Australia.
“Alex, You’ve come a long way since this pic was taken at the AO last year on your making the Davis Cup team. I remember a teenage Rafa going down to Lleyton in the 3rd round back in 2004. And look what Rafa’s done since,” Laver, known as Rocket, said. “You’re definitely on the right road.”
De Minaur can take some heart from the score of that Hewitt-Nadal match. Hewitt also won in straight sets, although the first two were in tiebreaks. De Minaur only won eight games in his match against Nadal on Friday. Nadal has won 17 major titles.
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1:10 p.m.
U.S. Open champion Naomi Osaka overcame a frustrating first set and a tricky rival to reach the fourth round of the Australian Open with a 5-7, 6-4, 6-1 win over Hsieh Su-wei.
The fourth-seeded Osaka got a warning from the umpire for smashing her racket onto the court in the first set and was down a break in the second before gaining control of the match.
The 33-year-old Hsieh, who plays with a double-handed grip on both sides and uses a mixture of spin and slice and drop shots to unsettle her rivals, reached the fourth round last year here and at Wimbledon, where she beat top-ranked Simona Halep.
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11 a.m.
U.S. Open champion Naomi Osaka has started her third-round match at the Australian Open against Hsieh Su-wei on Margaret Court Arena.
Serena Williams will continue her bid for an eighth Australian title and an Open-era record 24th Grand Slam singles title overall when she plays Dayana Yastremska later Saturday on Rod Laver Arena.
A win for Williams on day six of the tournament will set up a fourth-round match against either her older sister, Venus, or top-ranked Simona Halep.
Top-ranked Novak Djokovic headlines the men’s draw, and has a night match against rising Canadian Denis Shapovalov.
The forecast is for a mild, sunny day in Melbourne with a top temperature of 22 Celsius (72 F).
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More AP Tennis: https://www.apnews.com/apf-Tennis and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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