Auger-Aliassime advances to Australian Open 4th round with win over Cerundolo

Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime defeated Argentina’s Francisco Cerundolo 6-1, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 to advance to the fourth round of the Australian Open.

The Montreal native smashed nine aces and won 85 percent of first serve points, as well as breaking on six out of 20 chances.

He also had 38 winners to Cerundolo’s 22 in a match played on Friday afternoon in Melbourne.

SEE | Auger-Aliassime defeated Cerundolo in the 3rd round:

Auger-Aliassime advances to the round of 16 at the Australian Open

Félix Auger-Aliassime defeated Argentina’s Francisco Cerundolo 6-1, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 in the third round of the Australian Open.

After cruising through the third set, Auger-Aliassime faced a strong challenge from Cerundolo in fourth.

After falling behind 2-1, the 22-year-old Auger-Aliassime hit three straight games to go up 4-2.

Cerundolo, however, trimmed the deficit thanks to an error from the Canadian after a forehand winner gave him the advantage in deuce.

It then turned into a back and forth business as the two would match each other after every game they won.

But that failed to work in Argentina’s favour, as Auger-Aliassime cruised through the final, taking a match point with an ace.

In women’s doubles action, Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada and her partner Giuliana Olmos of Mexican America defeated Shelby Rogers and Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 in the opening round.

Dabrowski and Olmos smashed three aces against one double fault and won 73 percent of first-serve points. They also broke on five of nine chances.

The third-seeded duo had 25 winners against their opponents’ 21.

Meanwhile, fellow Canadians Leylah Fernandez and Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the US fell 7-6 (5), 4-6, 3-6 to Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil and Zhang Shuai of China in their first-round match.

After winning the opening set, Fernandez and Mattek-Sands fell apart after a great start for the latter.

The duo won the first four games of the middle series. From there, Haddad Maia and Zhang took the lead in six straight games to win the set.

In the third, they built on their momentum, taking three of the first four games. Fernandez and Mattek-Sands couldn’t get any closer than within two games of their comeback hopes.

Fernandez and Mattek-Sands hit four of their 12 chances as their opponents went 6-for-10.

Pegula, Gauff cruise into the 4th round

American favorites Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff had decisive third-round wins on Friday.

Third seed Pegula, a quarterfinalist in the last two years at Melbourne Park, needed 65 minutes to win 6-0, 6-2 against Marta Kostyuk. Gauff beat seventh seed Bernarda Pera 6-3, 6-2 to reach the last 16.

Pegula ran through the first set and although Kostyuk established herself in the second set, she was always playing catch-up.

“I thought I didn’t give many free points,” said Pegula, who will meet 2021 French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova in the next round. “I was playing aggressive when I had to but also smart. Happy to be through to the next round.”

Gauff had to withstand a barrage of heavy hitting from Pera.

Iga Swiatek beat top seed Cristina Bucsa, a qualifier from Spain, 6-0, 6-1 in 55 minutes. Last year’s finalist Danielle Collins of the USA was beaten 6-2, 5-7, 6-2 by Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina.

Krejcikova became the first player to advance to the fourth round after a 6-2, 6-3 win over Anhelina Kalinina to open play on Friday at Rod Laver Arena.

The 20th seed Czech player won the first five games of the match and dominated his Ukrainian opponent. Krejcikova did not drop a set in three games.

Tsitsipas steps forward to confront a sinner

In the men’s match, Stefanos Tsitsipas will face Jannik Sinner in the fourth round.

Third seed Tsitsipas saved a set point in the second set but beat Tallon Griekspoor 6-2, 7-6 (5), 6-3 to reach the last 16 at Melbourne Park for the third time in four years.

Sinner came out of two sets for the first time in his career when he beat Marton Fucsovics 4-6, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-0 after 3 hours, 33 minutes, winning the 12 last.

“The first two sets were definitely very tough for me,” said the 21-year-old Italian player and the 15th seed. “I went on the court with one tactic, then I had to change a bit, going a bit more to my backhand. We did a lot of work in the off-season physically so today I was good physically in the last few sets .”

Tsitsipas, the highest ranked player to leave the men’s game, was hard pressed after defending champion Rafael Nadal and No.

The Dutch player had a set point on Tsitsipas’ serve at 6-5 in the second set but was unable to convert and Tsitsipas pulled away for victory.

Tsitsipas and Sinner played five times, with the Greek leading 4-1. The 24-year-old is a three-time Australian Open semi-finalist and was runner-up to Novak Djokovic in 2021 at the French Open. Sinner reached the quarter finals in Melbourne last year.