Aryna Sabalenka has extended her reign as tiebreak queen to book a fourth successive appearance in the Australian Open quarterfinals before Carlos Alcaraz reached the last eight with a Tommy Paul takedown.
Third-seeded Coco Gauff also advanced to her third quarterfinals in a row on Sunday with a pulsating 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 win over crafty Czech Karolina Muchova in a late-afternoon match at Margaret Court Arena.
The day’s biggest upset was veteran Daniil Medvedev’s straight-sets exit at the hands of Learner Tien.
A day after blistering heat caused mayhem and meltdowns at Melbourne Park, normal service resumed as a cool change brought relief for players, fans and tournament schedulers.
Two-time champion and title favourite Sabalenka was first out, seeing off Canada’s 19-year-old talent Victoria Mboko 6-1, 7-6(1) in a match of two halves.
The Belarusian was at her irrepressible best as she crushed the teen in a 31-minute opening set and raced to a 4-1 lead in the second before Mboko produced a thrilling fightback.
Breaking Sabalenka twice on the way to a 6-5 lead, Mboko then hit a brick wall as the Belarusian raised her game to notch a 20th successive tiebreak win at Grand Slams.
“It’s incredible to see these kids coming up on tour,” said world number one Sabalenka, who has now booked 13 successive Grand Slam quarterfinals.
“She pushed me really hard today.”
Having taken down one young gun, Sabalenka gets a shot at another in the quarters against 18-year-old American Iva Jovic, who thrashed Kazakh veteran Yulia Putintseva 6-0, 6-1 at John Cain Arena, two days after dumping out seventh-seeded Jasmine Paolini.
Jovic is the youngest player to reach the women’s quarterfinals at the Australian Open without dropping a set since Venus Williams in 1998.
The men’s tournament has seen few surprises of the magnitude of Mboko and Jovic with the last 16 shut out by seeded players for the first time at any Grand Slam in the professional era.
Top-seeded Alcaraz did his bit in preserving the status quo despite facing arguably his toughest test of this tournament against 19th-seeded Paul, a semifinalist in 2023.
For all of Paul’s credentials, Alcaraz appeared in cruise control in a 7-6(6), 6-4, 7-5 win in the afternoon sun at Rod Laver Arena.
Once a stubborn matchup for Alcaraz, Paul has now lost on three Grand Slam surfaces to the Spaniard after last year’s quarterfinal thrashing at the French Open and his 2024 loss at Wimbledon.
“I guess the way that I would describe it is, you know, he kind of, like, suffocates you in a way,” Paul said of Alcaraz.
“He makes you feel like you have no time.”
Two-time Grand Slam champion Gauff saw three match points slip through her fingers before prevailing in a proper scrap against 19th-seeded Muchova, a former semifinalist.
Gauff emerged the winner with a 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 scoreline.
“She definitely elevated her game, and I thought I was sometimes a bit passive,” said Gauff, who will meet the winner of the match between Elina Svitolina and Mirra Andreeva in the quarters.
“I am really happy to get through this one today.
“I think today I didn’t panic. … I knew I just had to capitalise on those chances in the third set, and I did that.”
Later in the day, last year’s runner-up Alexander Zverev stayed on track in his bid for an elusive maiden Grand Slam title, beating Francisco Cerundolo 6-2, 6-4, 6-4 to reach the quarterfinals.
The 28-year-old German has lost all three Grand Slam title clashes he has contested, including last year’s final to Jannik Sinner at Melbourne Park, and has flown under the radar this time as he seeks another opportunity.
“I’m very happy with the match and the performance. Really happy to be back in the quarterfinals,” Zverev said on court, dodging a question on whether he is playing his best tennis.
“I don’t want to jinx it. I’ll keep my mouth shut. But you have to play at a high level to reach the quarterfinals. I hope to continue the same way.”
Zverev will face American Tien, who overcame a nosebleed in the opening set to school Medvedev 6-4, 6-0, 6-3 in a late session.
Tien upset Medvedev in the second round at the Australian Open last year in an epic five-setter that lasted nearly five hours, but this time, he wrapped up the contest in just an hour and 42 minutes on Margaret Court Arena.
Tien took a medical timeout 10 minutes into the fourth-round encounter as he stuffed tissues up his nose, but that did little to stop his dominance on court as he left Medvedev looking utterly lost on numerous rallies.
Medvedev had said he did not like playing Tien after a trilogy of matches that went the distance last year, and the 20-year-old proved him right with a clinical performance that included 33 winners.
Originally published at Al Jazeera
