On yet another day of surprise results at Melbourne Park, one of the more experienced players in the women’s draw returned to the fourth round.
Eighteen years after her Australian Open debut, former world No.1 and two-time champion Victoria Azarenka is back in the last 16 for the 11th time in her career at what is her most successful Grand Slam.
The 34-year-old, who won the Melbourne major back-to-back in 2012-13 and who reached the semifinals 12 months ago, maintained her perfect head-to-head record against the in-form Jelena Ostapenko by beating the Latvian in straight sets, 6-1 7-5.
Vika is far too experienced to be fooled into thinking that going deeper in the draw will be a straightforward process, even though there are just seven seeds through to the women’s fourth round.
“There are no bad players in the fourth round of a Grand Slam,” she said. “If they are here, that means they worked their butts off and they played well and they deserve to be here.”
A new star was born under the Rod Laver Arena lights on Saturday night when 19-year-old Czech Linda Noskova blew the top half of the women’s event wide open, producing the shock of the tournament to beat world No.1 Iga Swiatek.
The world No.50 took control of the match midway through the second set to win 3-6 6-3 6-4, hammering 35 winners past the four-time major champion in the process. The result ended the Polish top seed’s 18-match win streak.
“I felt like I had everything under control until she broke me in the second set,” a stunned Swiatek said afterwards. “I had couple of chances to break her in the second set and I didn't use them.”
With Swiatek gone, it will be fascinating to see who can emerge from the top half with so many of the players that remain unfamiliar with the physical and mental demands of the second week of a major.
After the biggest win of her career, Noskova will next face 19th seed Elina Svitolina. Below them in the draw, Azarenka will take on qualifier and world No.93 Dayana Yastremska, who beat 27th seed Emma Navarro.
In the second quarter of the women’s singles, one of the semifinalists will emerge from a group of four players that features Italy’s 31st seed Jasmine Paolini, world No.75 Anna Kalinskaya, Chinese 12th seed Zheng Qinwen and French world No.95 Oceane Dodin.
Swiatek’s exit wasn’t the only big surprise on Day 7, as the in-form Grigor Dimitrov and last year’s semifinalist, American Tommy Paul, both went out.
World No.69 Nuno Borges became the first Portuguese ever to reach the last 16 in Melbourne when he ended Dimitrov’s run in four sets, while Serbia’s Miomir Kecmanovic saved two match points in the fourth set tiebreak before finishing off Paul 6-0 in the fifth.
Young Frenchman Arthur Cazaux continued his extraordinary run through the bottom half as a wild card in the draw when he dropped just seven games against 28th seed Tallon Griekspoor.
Three top-10 stars made sure they will be back on Monday, though, as second seed Carlos Alcaraz, third seed Daniil Medvedev and sixth seed Alexander Zverev all eased through.
Alcaraz was leading Chinese 18-year-old Shang Juncheng 6-1 6-1 1-0 when the teenager retired with a leg injury.
Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz and Britain’s Cameron Norrie – who put out 11th seed Casper Ruud in four sets – will also be back next week.