MELBOURNE, Australia — Defending champion Aryna Sabalenka and U.S. Open winner Coco Gauff avoided the early Day 4 upsets at the Australian Open to advance to the third round along with 16-year-old Mirra Andreeva.
Three-time major finalist Ons Jabeur lost 6-0, 6-2 in 54 minutes to Andreeva in Wednesday’s opening match on Rod Laver Arena and then 2018 champion Caroline Wozniacki also lost to a young Russian on the No. 3 show court.
Two other 16-year-old players lost their center court matches to highly-ranked players: No. 10 Beatriz Haddad Maia accounted for Alina Korneeva 6-1, 6-2 and Sabalenka overpowered Brenda Fruhvirtova 6-3, 6-2 to open the night session.
Gauff extended her winning streak to nine matches at Grand Slams with a 7-6 (6), 6-2 win over fellow American Caroline Dolehide.
Dolehide served for the opening set at 6-5 before U.S. Open champion Gauff took control in the tiebreaker.
“It was really hard,” Gauff said. “If you give her something short, she’s going to punish you for it, so if I could go back and do something I’d change that.”
Gauff will next play another American, Alycia Parks, who reached the third round of a Grans Slam singles tournament for the first time with a 7-5, 6-4 win over 32nd-ranked Leylah Fernandez.
Jabeur, the runner-up at Wimbledon in each of the past two years, made 24 unforced errors against Andreeva.
“I was really nervous before the match because I’m really inspired by Ons and the way she plays,” said Andreeva, who lost in the final of the junior event here last year. “Before I started on the WTA Tour, I always watched her matches and was always so inspired. Now I had the chance to play against her.”
It is the second successive year that Jabeur has lost in the second round in Melbourne.
Wozniacki led by a set and a break before losing 1-6, 6-4, 6-1 to 20-year-old Maria Tomafeeva, who is making her main draw Grand Slam singles debut.
Wozniacki, who had two children before returning to the WTA Tour last year after 3 1-2 years away, started out on top before Tomafeeva turned the match around with some devastating hitting, including 40 winners.
“I’m really a bit speechless now,” Tomafeeva said. “It was an honor to play here against Caroline. I was going into the match without any expectations. I enjoyed every second of it.”
Wozniacki said the match “slid out of my hands . . . it’s definitely disappointing,”
Jabeur and Wozniacki played their matches under the roof, on Rod Laver Arena and John Cain Arena, respectively, with rain causing the start of matches on the outside courts to be delayed for three hours. It cleared up and the backlog of matches was limited.
Amanda Anisimova continued her comeback from a seven-month mental health break with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Nadia Podoroska. She’ll next play Paula Badosa, a 6-2, 6-3 winner over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
In men’s matches, fourth-seeded Jannick Sinner beat Jesper de Jong 6-2, 6-2, 6-2 on Margaret Court Arena, the third stadium at Melbourne Park with a retractable roof.
U.S. Open semifinalist Ben Shelton, the No. 16 seed, advanced 6-4, 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (5) over local hope Chris O’Connell. He had match points in the 12th game of the fourth set but couldn’t convert, and needed two more in the tiebreaker before advancing.
A quarterfinalist on debut here last year, Shelton said he enjoyed the atmosphere that the home crowd gave O’Connell and said he could still hear the chant “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi” in his sleep.
Australia’s highest-ranked player, No. 10 Alex de Minaur, accounted for Matteo Arnaldi 6-3, 6-0, 6-3. De Minaur will next play Flavio Cobolli, an Italian qualifier who beat Pavel Kotov 7-5, 6-3, 5-7, 6-2. No. 12-seeded Taylor Fritz also advanced.
Novak Djokovic, a 10-time winner of the event, plays local hope Alexei Popyrin in the late match.
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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
