MELBOURNE, (Reuters) – Top seed Ash Barty recovered from an early wobble to defeat Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-2 6-4 in the third round of the Australian Open yesterday, while Alex De Minaur fell to Fabio Fognini in a mixded day for the host country.
Barty, looking to become the first homegrown Australian Open singles champion since 1978, showed no signs of being hampered by her strapped left thigh although she admitted that playing in an empty stadium due to Melbourne’s five-day lockdown felt strange.
Italian 16th seed Fabio Fognini ended the host nation’s challenge in the men’s singles draw with a clinical 6-4 6-3 6-4 victory over 21st seed De Minaur.
Fognini will next face second seed Rafa Nadal, who battled past Britain’s Cameron Norrie 7-5 6-2 7-5 to keep alive his hopes of a record 21st Grand Slam.
The 34-year-old Spaniard was heckled by a loud-mouthed fan in the previous round but enjoyed an incident-free evening to reach the round of 16 at a Grand Slam for the 49th time in his career.
Daniil Medvedev extended his winning streak to 17 matches after outlasting Filip Krajinovic 6-3 6-3 4-6 3-6 6-0 in his first five-set victory.
Sixth seed Karolina Pliskova received a code violation for racket abuse and was handed a point deduction for smashing another racket as she crumbled to a 7-5 7-5 defeat by Czech compatriot Karolina Muchova.
Stefanos Tsitsipas barely broke sweat as he swept past Swede Mikael Ymer 6-4 6-1 6-1 to book a date with Italian Matteo Berrettini, who downed Russian Karen Khachanov in three tie-break sets.
