Melbourne [Australia], January 19 : Defending champion Arnya Sabalenka sealed her place in the fourth round of the Australian Open with ease, while, 2023 US Open winner Coco Gauff also displayed a dominant performance to move into the next round on Friday.
Sabalenka who tasted her first Grand Slam success in 2023 didn't put a single foot wrong during her 6-0, 6-0 victory over Lesia Tsurenko at the Rod Laver Arena. The second-seeded player needed just 52 minutes to bag her first "double bagel" victory at pro tour level.
Following this victory she became the first woman to reach the Australian Open fourth round with minimal games lost since Victoria Azarenka in 2016.
Sabalenka bagged her 10th straight match win in Melbourne which also includes the seven she claimed to lift the Australian Open 2023 trophy. With this landmark win, she became the first woman to build a win streak since Serena Williams in 2017 and 2019.
In the first set, Sabalenka forced Tsurenko to play on her backhand which led to a handful of errors. The second set was quite similar to the first one as Tsurenko continued to make errors while attempting the backhand and Sabalenka used her strokes effectively to gain points.
With the likes of world No.1 Iga Swiatek needing to pull off a remarkable comeback to seal her berth into the next round. Number 3 seed Elena Rybakina and Number 5 Jessica Pegula crashed out of the tournament after they suffered upset losses in the second round.
As the situation continues to favour Sabalenka, paving the way for her to defend the title, she brushed off the suggestion and said quoted from the Australian Open, "Listen, it's tennis. As we see by some of the top players losing in the earlier matches that anything can happen, so I don't want to look that far. I'm just focusing match by match ... I'm just trying to do my best and prepare myself as best I can for each match."
Fourth seed Coco Gauff was also impressive during her 6-0, 6-2 victory over Alycia Parks. During the 61-minute game, Gauff almost managed to complete a flawless victory over her fellow tennis player Alycia.
She registered just 8 unforced errors during her outing and went on to register straight-set victory. Gauff expressed her delight after her triumph and said as quoted from Sky Sports, "I'm really happy with how I played. The score says different. She's a tough player. She hits the ball big. I've known her since I was like eight years old. Our first time ever playing juniors or pros. Hopefully we can have many more matches in the future."
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