Ash Barty is headed for the quarterfinals as she survived a nasty surprise late in the second set to blitz American Shelby Rogers.
Ash Barty's dream of winning the Australian Open is still alive after she beat American Shelby Rogers to move into the quarterfinals.
The world No. 1 is unbeaten in 2021 and will be desperate to extend her hot streak for three more matches as she hunts a trophy at her home grand slam.
Elsewhere, Rafael Nadal beat Fabio Fognini to advance into the quarters while Jessica Pegula pulled off the biggest win of her career by upsetting No. 5 seed Elina Svitolina.
Ash Barty beat Shelby Rogers and Karolina Muchova disposed of Elise Mertens on Monday night to finalise the women's quarterfinals.
Women's quarterfinals:
Ash Barty vs Karolina Muchova
Jennifer Brady vs Jessica Pegula
Hsieh Su-Wei vs Naomi Osaka
Serena Williams vs Simona Halep
Ash Barty is through to the quarterfinals after destroying Shelby Rogers in straight sets 6-3 6-4.
The world No. 1 took just over an hour to beat the unseeded American, who was powerless to stop a rampaging Barty from claiming another victim.
Despite sitting out much of 2020 once COVID-19 struck, Barty is showing no signs of rust as she remains unbeaten this year throughout eight matches, having won lead-in tournament the Yarra Valley Classic.
The Australian is yet to drop a set at Melbourne Park this year and oozed class as she won the first set in 30 minutes.
Her backhand slice looked as good as ever and Barty was clinical from the baseline, rebuffing everything Shelby threw at her.
The top seed maintained the rage in the second set, breaking early to take a 2-1 lead, then continued to cause Rogers problems on her serve as she raced to 5-1 before tightening up.
Rogers held, then pounced when Barty was serving for the match at 5-2 and broke the Queenslander.
Soon it was 5-4 and there were some concerns Barty was losing her grip on the match.
But she brushed those worries aside by easily holding serve and claiming the second set and with it, the match.
Rod Laver Arena
Jessica Pegula (USA) d Elina Svitolina (UKR) [5] 6-4 3-6 6-3
Jennifer Brady (USA) [22] d Donna Vekic (CRO) [28] 6-1 7-5
Rafael Nadal (ESP) [2] defeated Fabio Fognini (ITA) [16] 6-3 6-4 6-2
Ash Barty (AUS) [1] defeated Shelby Rogers (USA) 6-3 6-4
Matteo Berrettini (ITA) [9] withdraws from match vs Stefanos Tsitsipas (GRE) [5]
Margaret Court Arena
Dylan Alcott (AUS) [1] d Neils Vink (NED) 6-4 6-3
Daniil Medvedev (RUS) [4] d Mackenzie McDonald (USA) 6-4 6-2 6-3
Andrey Rublev (RUS) [7] defeated Casper Ruud (NOR) [24] 6-2 -7-6 (RET)
Karolina Muchova (CZE) [25] defeated Elise Mertens (BEL) [18] 7-6 7-5
Matteo Berrettini has withdrawn from his round of 16 clash against Stefanos Tsitsipas with an abdominal injury.
Both players were scheduled to face off on Rod Laver Arena after Ash Barty's match against Shelby Rogers but their clash has been abandoned without a ball being hit.
It means Tsitsipas receives a walkover into the quarterfinals, where he'll play Rafael Nadal.
Nadal let the news about Berrettini slip during his press conference after a win over Fabio Fognini, before Australian Open organisers quickly confirmed the sad development.
Men's quarterfinals:
Novak Djokovic vs Alexander Zverev
Aslan Karatsev vs Grigor Dimitrov
Andrey Rublev vs Daniil Medvedev
Stefanos Tsitsipas vs Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal is through to the quarterfinals after blasting past Fabio Fognini in straight sets.
Fognini, who got in a fight after his win over fellow Italian Salvatore Caruso last week, was in with a chance after breaking Nadal in the second set but the Spaniard recovered then cruised to a 6-3 6-4 6-2 victory.
Earlier, even though fans are banned from Melbourne Park as Victoria's five-day lockdown continues, Nadal was still irritated by some action in the stands.
It wasn't anywhere near as dramatic as a woman heckling the Spaniard and flipping him the bird last week, but the famously superstitious 20-time major champion, who needs everything to be in order, appeared to be distracted by something on the sidelines.
He seemed to complain about a photographer, possibly about the light catching the camera lens and reflecting outwards or the noise of snaps being taken – which could be heard more clearly than ever because of the relative silence caused by the lockout.
It didn't worry Nadal too much though as he bounced back from a break down to win the second set and surge on to win the match.
Fognini was ahead 4-2 in the second but choked big time to blow his chance of a major upset.
Fognini after breaking for 4-2
— José Morgado (@josemorgado) February 15, 2021
Gets broken for 4-3* despite coming back from a 0-40 down
Wastes a 0-40 lead on Nadal serve, who wins 5 consecutive points and holds
Gets broken for 4-5* from 30-0 up
Yikes
Casper Ruud retired after dropping two sets to Russian Andrey Rublev.
Rublev won the first set 6-2 then claimed the second 7-6 in a tiebreaker before Ruud pulled the pin.
He seemed to be having issues with his mid-section but nothing was confirmed and the exact nature of Ruud's injury remained a mystery after he left the court.
On Rod Laver Arena, Rafael Nadal took the opening set 6-3 over Italian Fabio Fognini.
Fourth-seed Daniil Medvedev extended his win streak to 18 matches when he took just 89 minutes to blow away Mackenzie McDonald 6-4 6-2 6-3 and reach the quarter-finals of the Australian Open.
Medvedev is into his first quarter-final at the Australian Open where he will play either countryman and ATP Cup-winning teammate Andrey Rublev or Norway’s Casper Rudd.
“I’m going to be rooting for Andrey because if he wins it’s got to be at least one Russian in the semi-final,” said Medvedev.
With Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal both carrying injuries Medvedev has moved towards outright favouritism for the men's singles crown.
– with AFP
Australian Open surprise Jessica Pegula has written a classy message of support to fellow American Jennifer Brady after stunning No. 5 seed Elina Svitolina in the fourth round.
The 26-year-old, whose parents own the Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Sabres sport franchises, has made a name for herself in her own right after making it through to her first ever grand slam quarter-final.
Her parents, Terry and Kim Pegula, have owned both Buffalo sports franchises since 2014, and have a net worth of more than $5 billion, according to Forbes.
After causing one of the biggest upsets of the 2021 Open, Pegula wrote a nice message for her compatriot who was next up on Rod Laver Arena.
"See you in next round, Jen B," she wrote on the courtside camera in a message that also gave a shout out to her famous folks.
Brady was one of the first people to congratulate Pegula on the biggest win over her career when they crossed paths in the tunnels underneath the stadium before Brady walked out for her match.
Pegula got her wish just a few hours later with Brady overcoming an injury to move past Donna Vekic 6-1 7-5.
Brady's response to Pegula's earlier camera message was absolutely perfect.
This 🖋 from JennBrady to her QF opponent (and good friend) Jessica Pegula is GOLD#AusOpen pic.twitter.com/BFxCGHQiLP
— Nick McCarvel (@NickMcCarvel) February 15, 2021
Unseeded American Jessica Pegula is into her first ever grand slam quarter final after showing up Elina Svitolina.
Pegula's win is another boost for Ash Barty, who is now the only player ranked in the top 15 still standing on her side of the draw.
Svitolina, the No. 5 seed, fought back from a break down in the third set, but was broken again by a steely Pegula, who served out the match 6-4 3-6 6-3.
Pegula will move into the top 50 of the WTA Rankings for the first time as a result of her fourth round win.
She faces the winner of the Donna Vekic-Jennifer Brady match in the final eight.
A couple of days ago Novak Djokovic looked like he’d taken a cannon blast to his midsection.
Monday he woke as the red-hot Australian Open favourite — but is still insisting a mystery abdominal injury suffered in his third round match would have seen him pull out of any other tournament except a grand slam.
It's created a huge amount of doubt in the tennis community, including from players and a leading coach.
Former tennis champion and Nine commentator Jelena Dokic has laid out exactly how she lost 20kg after copping criticism from trolls.
The former tennis star has received enormous praise after her Instagram post over weight loss and “body shaming” went viral.
Konstantin Koltsov, boyfriend of tennis superstar Aryna Sabalenka, has died suddenly. Now his tragic cause of death can be revealed.