Five takeaways from Day 5 at Australian Open
MELBOURNE, Australia – A pair of tennis milestones and two Australian upstarts created plenty of buzz on day five of the Australian Open, as the tournament climbs towards its halfway point.
Here’s what happened while you were sleeping.
Federer and Sharapova’s landmark wins
Both Roger Federer and Maria Sharapova were tested on Friday, but the former champions here came through daytime matches inside Rod Laver Arena to achieve respective milestones.
For Federer, his four-set triumph over 27th seed Grigor Dimitrov was a 300th career win at a Grand Slam, making him the first man to reach that number in the Open Era. Now only Martina Navratilova leads him in total wins, having won 306 major matches in her career.
Earlier, Sharapova had overcome American Lauren Davis in three sets to win the 600th overall match of her career. “Oh wow I’ve won 600 matches?” Sharapova said on court after the victory. Then joked: “Is this a friendly reminder I’m getting older?”
Serena, Novak successful in straights
While Federer and Sharapova each dropped their first sets of the tournament, top seeds and defending champions flew through in straights, Serena Williams doing so rather flawlessly. The six-time champion won in just 44 minutes, the shortest match of this tournament, beating Russian teenager Daria Kasatkina 6-1, 6-1 by smacking 27 winners and losing just one point on first serve the entire match.
Novak Djokovic, meanwhile, was tested by No. 28 seed Andreas Seppi, the Italian holding a set point in the third but being outdone by the Serbian, 6-1, 7-5, 7-6(6).
Gavrilova’s continued run, chatty Kyrgios dropped out
The two headline makers for the host country this week have been Daria “Dasha” Gavrilova and Nick Kyrgios, though on Friday they faced different fates. Gavrilova, 21, won a dramatic encounter with No. 28 seed Kristina Mladenovic 6-4, 4-6, 11-9 to book her spot in the fourth round of a major for the first time.
Kyrgios, on the other hand, was a four-set loser to No. 6 seed Tomas Berdych, arguing with the chair umpire during the match that there was music playing. “You’re a terrible referee,” the 20-year-old Kyrgios told umpire James Keothavong as they shook hands.
Rainy days in Melbourne
Rain prevented play on the outside courts for much of the late morning and early afternoon, the three courts with retractable roofs – Rod Laver, Margaret Cour and Hisense Arenas – functioning throughout the day. But a handful of singles matches on Show Courts 2 and 3 being pushed back to the late afternoon and early evening.
That included No. 12 seed Marin Cilic’s match, the 2014 U.S. Open winner going down in a surprising result to Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut, 6-4, 7-6(5), 7-5.
Rain is forecast Saturday and Sunday in Melbourne, as well.
Quickly, quietly
Elsewhere top seeds were (mostly) unbothered: Agnieszka Radwanska, the No. 4 seed, lost just four games, while No. 7 seed Kei Nishikori dropped a set but ended things comfortably over Guillermo Garcia-Lopez. Teenager Belinda Bencic, one of three players to beat Williams last year, won to set up a fourth round clash with Sharapova, while little-known Russian Margarita Gasparyan won for the right to play Williams in round four on Sunday.
Other victors in third round matches: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Carla Suarez Navarro, Dominic Thiem, Gilles Simon and Anna-Lena Friedsam.
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