Melbourne [Australia], January 25 : World No.1 Aryna Sabalenka stormed into the women's singles quarterfinals of the ongoing Australian Open 2026 tournament on Sunday.
The top-seeded player thrashed World No.17 Victoria Mboko in straight sets 6-1, 7-6(1) in a one-sided match on Rod Laver Arena.
The two-time Australian Open champion won her 20th consecutive tiebreak at Grand Slam level, eclipsing an almost two-decade old record owned by Novak Djokovic, who won 19 straight tiebreaks at majors between Wimbledon 2005 and 2007, according to the Australian Open's official site.
"What an incredible player for such a young age, it's incredible to see these kids coming up on tour," said Sabalenka, who is yet to drop a set.
"(She) pushed me really hard today, super happy with the win. It was quite a fight," Sabalenka said, acknowledging that her foe made the second set tricky by playing with the freedom of someone with nothing to lose. "I'm super happy that I was able to close this match in straight sets," she added.
Meanwhile, the 18-year-old Iva Jovic dominated the court at John Cain Arena and advanced to her maiden Grand Slam quarterfinal after thrashing Kazakh Yulia Putintseva 6-0, 6-1 in just 53 minutes - the quickest match of the Australian Open 2026 so far.
"I'm really glad to get through," Jovic said. "Obviously, the scoreline is favourable, but it doesn't matter how you get it done. I just wanted to get it done, and I felt like if I let her come back a little bit, it would become a dog fight. So, I just tried to keep it as far away as possible and [I'm] just so happy to be in the finals."
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