Day 6 women’s wrap: Karolina Pliskova, Elina Svitolina, Belinda Bencic join seeds’ Australian Open mass exodus
It’s been back-to-back dirty days for the women’s seeds with top-10 stars Karolina Pliskova, Elina Svitolina and Belinda Bencic following the likes of Naomi Osaka and Serena Williams out of the Australian Open. WOMEN’S WRAP
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- Day 6 men’s wrap: Rafael Nadal win sets up possible Kyrgios clash
- Australian Open 2020: See all live scores, results here
World No.2 Karolina Pliskova and No.6 Belinda Bencic have joined the procession of top seeds to exit the Australian Open in the first week.
Naomi Osaka (3), Serena Williams (8) and Madison Keys (10) all exited yesterday.
19th seed Donna Vekic was also dumped out as lower-ranked players dominated day six.
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WORLD NO.2 SENT PACKING
Karolina Pliskova has sensationally bombed out to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova as the shocks kept rolling in the Australian Open third round.
A day after Serena Williams and defending champion Naomi Osaka both exited, Russia’s Pavlyuchenkova won 7-6(7-4), 7-6(7-3) for her first victory over the Czech second seed.
The result means that two of the top three seeds are now out of the women’s draw, after third-ranked Osaka fell to 15-year-old American Coco Gauff on Friday.
Williams, the seven-time Melbourne champion who was seeking a record-equalling 24th Grand Slam title, was stunned by China’s Wang Qiang.
“I don’t know what to say, of course I’m really happy but I won’t really realise that until later,” Pavlyuchenkova, a quarter-finalist last year and in 2017, said.
“It was a lot of fun and I actually really enjoyed it.”
Pliskova won this month’s WTA Brisbane title, beating Osaka on the way, but she was always under pressure against 30th seed Pavlyuchenkova in hot conditions on the Melbourne centre court.
They exchanged breaks in each set but Pavlyuchenkova had the edge in both tiebreakers, taking the win after 2hrs 25mins when Pliskova netted a forehand.
“I love this game (tennis) and that’s what drives me, I appreciate more what I have now,” Pavlyuchenkova said. “I am hungry and motivated so hopefully can achieve more.
“I love the heat, even though everyone says you’re from Russia and love cold weather, I don’t, I hate it!”
The Russian will play former champion Angelique Kerber in the last 16 as she attempts to reach the last eight for a third time.
BENCIC BOUNCED BY ESTONIAN
Sixth-seeded Belinda Bencic has lost 6-0, 6-1 to Anett Kontaveit to join other a queue of highly-ranked women exiting from Melbourne Park before the fourth round.
Bencic had beaten former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko in the second round.
Bencic joins No. 2 Karolina Pliskova, No. 3 and defending champion Naomi Osaka and No. 8 Serena Williams among those who’ve lost in the third round.
SPAIN’S MUGURUZA KEEPS UPSETS COMING
Two-time major winner Garbine Muguruza has beaten fifth-seeded Elina Svitolina 6-1, 6-2 to reach the fourth round of the Australian Open.
Muguruza, who won the French Open in 2016 and Wimbledon the following year, took the first set in 23 minutes and conceded just 12 points in seven games. The third-round has been tough for highly seeded players in the women’s draw, with No. 2 Karolina Pliskova, No. 3 and defending champion Naomi Osaka, No. 6 Belinda Bencic, No. 8 Serena Williams - a 23-time major winner - all unable to reach the second week at Melbourne Park. Unseeded Muguruza started the tournament by losing the first set she played 6-0, but rebounded to win that match 0-6, 6-1, 6-0.
“The first day I didn’t feel well at all, but I never throw in the towel,” she said. “I’m in the fourth round because of a big fight.” Against Svitolina, a quarterfinalist at the last two Australian Open tournaments and a semifinalist last year at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, Muguruza was dominant.
“Everything went quickly my way - yeah, I’ll take it,” she said. “I played a very good match. I managed to probably disturb her, and take the match to my side.”
BELLIS’ OUT AFTER TWO YEAR ABSENCE
CiCi Bellis’ return to Grand Slam tennis after a two-year absence has ended in a third-round loss to 16th-seeded Elise Mertens at the Australian Open. Bellis had four operations on her right arm and her ranking dropped to 600 in the time between her trip Down Under in 2018 and her return to Melbourne Park. The 20-year-old American was told last year that there was a chance she’d never play again. But she took her place in the main draw on a protected ranking and then upset 20th-seeded Karolina Muchova in straight sets in the second round. It ended in a 6-1, 6-7 (5), 6-0 loss to Mertens, a semifinalist in Australia in 2018 who had only dropped five game in her two previous rounds
KAZAKH NO MATCH FOR HALEP
Former finalist and reigning Wimbledon champion Simona Halep has charged into the second week of the Australian Open as fellow top seeds tumbled out. Halep took just over an hour to down unseeded Kazakh Yulia Putintseva 6-1 6-4 in Saturday’s third-round match on Rod Laver Arena.
With world No.2 Karolina Pliskova falling to Russian underdog Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Halep is the highest seed left on her side of the women’s draw. But the Romanian fourth seed is paying no mind to the shock exit of Pliskova, nor highly-touted contenders Osaka and Williams.
“I’m not focusing on other players,” Halep said.
“I’m just focusing on myself. I know that this level, it is really tough every match, so we have to be 100 per cent focused for what we have to do on court. “(It) doesn’t matter who is winning, who is losing. I have just to do my job when I step on the court.” Runner-up to Carolina Wozniacki in 2018, Halep was pleased to return the fourth round at Melbourne Park for a third straight year and insists the Wimbledon crown isn’t weighing heavily on her expectations.
“It’s been a great year last year winning Wimbledon, but here it is a different tennis,” she said.
“So I’m ready. I was ready when I came here, so I’m just enjoying every match I play.
“I give everything I have to win and actually I’m really, really happy that I’m in the second week now.” The gritty baseliner fell at the last-16 hurdle last year, losing a tight three- setter to Williams.
She’ll likely have an easier assignment on this occasion, facing the victor of the Elise Mertens-CiCi Bellis clash on Monday.
KERBER HOLDS NERVE
Wimbledon champion Angelique Kerber, who won her breakthrough major in Australia in 2016 and has added two Grand Slam titles since, navigated a chaotic third round at the Australian Open to reach the second week.
As top sees bombed out around him, Kerber had 6-2, 6-7 (4), 6-3 win over Camila Giorgi.
In a later news conference, she almost laughed when asked if nervousness was contagious in the locker room when the top players start exiting.
“Every match starts from zero — doesn’t matter who against you play,” she said.
“You have sometimes a little bit bad days, good days.
“So it’s more about caring yourself, working on your strengths and going for it. So it’s nothing about looking around.”
The left-handed Kerber next faces Pavlyuchenkova, who was a junior champion here 12 years ago when she beat Caroline Wozniacki in the final. They’re playing for a spot in the quarterfinals, a stage Pavlyuchekova has reached five times but never surpassed at the majors.
She said she hasn’t been patient enough in the past, but is putting more value on each match now. She’d only ever taken one set off Pliskova in six previous losses, but decided to target one of the best serves in the women’s game on Rod Laver - and it worked.
Having a bunch of top players missing from the second week doesn’t come into her thinking, either.
“I don’t focus so much on names any more. I’ve been on the tour for a while,” she said, when asked about the absence of Williams, Osaka and so on. “Those are really big names and great players, but it’s tennis. Nowadays, as you can see, surprises happen. I just try not to lose myself and be in the present, do what I have. I have the next match to play Angelique - why should I care about all the other names?” Williams, who has won seven Australian titles among her 23 majors, 2018 champion Wozniacki and defending champion Osaka all lost on Friday. Wozniacki went immediately into retirement but Williams vowed to continue her pursuit of Margaret Court’s all-time record 24 majors after her loss to Wang Qiang, a player she’d beaten in 44 minutes at last year’s U.S. Open. Osaka, who won back- to-back majors at the 2018 U.S. Open and last year here in Australia, lost to 15-year-old Coco Gauff.
Bencic, a semifinalist at the U.S. Open last September, was rolled 6-0, 6-1 in 49 minutes by 28th-seeded Anett Kontaveit, who will next play Iga Swiatek, the No. 59-ranked player from Poland who took out 19th-seeded Donna Vekic 7-5, 6-3. A day after upsetting Osaka, Gauff combined with Caty McNally for a win in the second round of women’s doubles. The American teenagers beat eighth-seeded pair Kveta Peschke and Demi Schuurs 6-3, 6-4.
Men’ No. 1 Rafael Nadal was playing No. 27 Pablo Carreno Busta in the afternoon match on the main court at Melbourne Park.
10th-seeded Gael Monfils is already into the fourth round, advancing 7-6 (2), 6-4, 6-3 over No. 256-ranked Ernests Gulbis.
VEKIC CONTINUES WOMEN’S EXODUS
Unseeded Iga Swiatek helped continue the exodus of seeded women’s players at the Australian Open by beating No. 19 Donna Vekic 7-5, 6-3.
The 18-year-old Swiatek also beat two top-20 ranked players last year and advanced to the fourth round at the French Open before losing to Simona Halep. Vekic had beaten five-time Grand Slam champion Maria Sharapova in the first round at Melbourne Park.
Swiatek and 15-year-old Coco Gauff are the only teenagers left in the women’s main draw.
Originally published as Day 6 women’s wrap: Karolina Pliskova, Elina Svitolina, Belinda Bencic join seeds’ Australian Open mass exodus
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