Melbourne: Novak Djokovic of Serbia, the 4th seed, advanced to the quarter-finals of the Australian Open tennis series.
The Australian Open, the first Grand Slam of the year, is held in Melbourne, Australia. On the 8th day of the series yesterday, 4th seeded Novak Djokovic of Serbia played against 22nd seeded Alex de Minaur of Australia in the men’s singles 4th round.
In this match that lasted 2 hours and 6 minutes, Djokovic won easily in straight sets 6-2, 6-1, 6-2 and advanced to the quarter-finals. Djokovic will face No. 5 seed Andrey Rublev of Russia in the quarterfinals. Andrey Rublev battled back 9th seed Holger Roone of Canada 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (11-9) in the 4th round. The match lasted for 3 hours and 37 minutes.
In other matches, American Ben Sheldon defeated compatriot JJ Wolf 6-7 (5-7), 6-2, 6-7 (4-7), 7-6 (7-4), 6-2. Tommy Paul defeated 24th seed Roberto Bouti Sta of Spain 6-2, 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 to reach the quarter-finals. Ben Shelton and Tommy Ball face off in the quarter finals.
In the fourth round of women’s singles, 5th-seeded Sabelanka of Belarus defeated 12th-seeded Belinda Bencic of Switzerland 7-5, 6-2 and 30th-seeded Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic 6-0, 6-4. They defeated the 23rd seeded Huai Zhang of China in the set and advanced to the quarter finals.
4th seed Caroline Garcia of France suffered a shock 6-7 (3-7), 4-6 loss to Poland’s Mekta Linnett. In another match, Croatia’s Donna Vekic advanced to the finals by defeating Czech Republic’s Linda Fruhvirtova 6-2, 1-6, 6-3.
Sania couple in the quarter-final: India’s Sania Mirza and Rogan Bopanna played against Japan’s Ninomiya and Uruguay’s Ariel Beharjodi in the second round of mixed doubles. Sania Mirza and Rogan Bopanna won the match 6-4, 7-6 (11-9) and advanced to the quarter-finals in this match which lasted for one hour and 17 minutes.
