The winning streak of Alexandrova, the achievement of Djokovic and the conflict between Wozniacki and Yastremskaya: the results of the third day of the Australian Open

Performance of the Russians

On the third day of the Australian Open tennis championship, three representatives of Russia entered the court, but only two of them were able to get the upper hand and break into the next round of competitions. True, if Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, due to the postponement of the match on Wednesday, made her way only into the second round, then Ekaterina Alexandrova stepped into the third for the first time in her career. Failure only befell Veronika Kudermetova, as a year ago sheathed racket already at the start.

The main event of the day for domestic fans was the performance of Ekaterina Alexandrova. Russia's first racket sorted out with Barbora Kreichikova in just 64 minutes, for which she gave away only four games. The Czech woman not only looked unconvincing at her serve, losing 12 out of 14 rallies when she had to serve the second goal, but also looked passive at a stranger, taking over only in 7 cases out of 38. In addition, if Alexandrova turned all the break points into won ones games, then Kreichikova, on the contrary, did not realize any of the four available.

It is worth noting that this season Catherine is more than successful, as evidenced by a series of 12 victories. To date, she has not lost a single meeting, winning two tournaments - in Limoges and Shenzhen.

In the third round, her rival will be the finalist of last year's tournament, Peter Kvitov. This year, an experienced Czech is also in great shape, as proved at the competitions in Brisbane. There she reached the semifinals, blocking the path at once to two representatives of Russia. First, she beat Pavlyuchenkova, and then dealt with Lyudmila Samsonova.

Due to difficult weather conditions and numerous transfers, a number of matches of the initial stage were held only on the third day of the championship. As a result, Pavlyuchenkova and Kudermetova were forced to wait more than two days to begin their journey to the Australian Open. Perhaps this is what affected Veronica’s game. The 40-racket of the world confidently began a meeting with Sarah Sorribes-Tormo, but after the first set it literally stuck. For the two remaining games, she was able to take only two games and made almost five times more unforced errors (49:10).

Unlike the compatriot, Pavlyuchenkova confidently dealt with Nina Stoyanovich and for the fourth time in a row overcame the barrier of the first round of the tournament. In the first installment, she allowed her opponent to take only one game, and a serious struggle ensued only in the second. The athletes walked along for a long time, but with a score of 5: 5 Anastasia made a break for the fifth time in a match and tipped the scales in her direction.

“Probably the first time this was. It has been a week here, and it’s so hard when you wait for the first round, and then they put it on the third day. You go, everyone has already played, someone for the second time. But what to do, everyone has the same situation. She managed it, ”Pavlyuchenkova told Eurosport.

In the second round, a duel with Taylor Townsend awaits her. So far, the most striking episode in the career of a 23-year-old American is her performance at the US Open 2019. Then she presented a loud sensation and beat the ex-first racket of the world to Simon Halep.

R3 bound ▶ ️

The 25th seed Ekaterina Alexandrova makes a statement, def. Barbora Krejcikova 6-1 6-3 in 63mins. # AO2020 | # AusOpenpic.twitter.com / doVuAEXZ5O

The success of the favorites

On the third day of the Australian Open, women's tennis leaders did not experience serious problems. The first racket of the world Ashley Barty won the sixth consecutive match of the season, leaving no chance for Polone Herzog, and Naomi Osaka figured out Zheng Saysai. Despite a fairly confident victory, in one of the episodes, the Japanese woman could not control her emotions and threw the racket on the court. Subsequently, she rather amiably explained this episode.

“My racket magically flew out of my hands ( smiles ). I could not do anything. Somehow I did it. I know this is a little childish. I want to play one match without once throwing a racket. That's all I want, ”Osaka admitted after the match.

The company representatives of the top 4 WTA ranking was Serena Williams. After the failure at the US Open, the American did not suffer a single defeat and is determined to repeat the achievement of the legendary Margaret Court in the number of victories in Grand Slam tournaments. She has already won competitions in Auckland, and now she looks confident in Melbourne. Another “victim” was Tamara Zidanshek, who was content with only five games won.

It should be noted and Elena Rybakina. A native of Moscow protects the colors of Kazakhstan and is torn in the first 20 WTA ranking. This year, she became the champion in Hobart and for the first time in her career went beyond the first round in the major. At the moment, she has 11 wins in 12 matches of the season, but it will be extremely difficult for her to extend a successful series. For the exit to the fourth round, she will compete with Barty.

4️⃣ sets played, only 8️⃣ games lost for Serena Williams at # AO2020

How far will the 23x Grand Slam champion go in 🇦🇺? pic.twitter.com/ek9BsQn7SI

Scandal

Meanwhile, the confrontation between Carolina Wozniacki and Dayana Yastremskaya ended in scandal. The Dane rehabilitated herself for her defeat at the Masters in Cincinnati and gained the upper hand, while being able to win a big handicap twice. So, in the first set, she lost 1–5, and at the start of the second she lost three games in a row. Despite the success, she was unsatisfied with the actions of her rival, who in the end called the doctor on the court.

“Obviously, Yastremskaya tried to knock me off the beat. And I don’t think that there was anything wrong with her when the score was 5: 4 - she ran perfectly fine. This is not the first time that Dayana has done this, she was ready for it and just tried to keep her concentration, stay in the game, cling, ”Wozniacki said.

The Danish statement provoked an angry reaction from the mentor of the Ukrainian Sasha Bazhin. The specialist posted a message on Twitter in which Wozniacki responded harshly.

“I am writing to shut up some people and stop this useless conversation. Dayana has leg problems. But you are all doctors and trainers, and you know more than her or her team, ”the report said.

The ROAR of a champion 💕 # AO2020 | #AusOpen | @ CaroWozniackipic.twitter.com / U1YniJRLgI

Expulsion of fans

Another scandalous episode occurred in a match between Maria Sakkari and Mao Hibino, where Greek fans scored with a minus sign. The compatriots of the athlete who arrived at the court too rapidly celebrated the victory of the compatriot, for which they received warnings from the judge, guards and police in turn. However, the fans did not react, for which they were expelled from the arena. It is noted that a total of 15 to 20 fans were withdrawn.

It is not surprising that the Greeks did not like this appeal from the organizers, as a result of which many hastened to accuse them of discrimination.

“This is like a manifestation of racism. We won and celebrated success as we usually do. But people decided that it was too much, ”quoted The Herald Sun by Greek fan Armani Nikkas.

♥ ️👋 @ mariasakkari is back into the third round knocking off Hibino 7-6 (4) 6-4. She'll meet the winner of Keys / Rus. # AO2020 | # AusOpenpic.twitter.com / fbRMQpKmGb

Achievements of Djokovic and Federer

The favorites of the men's net did not experience any particular problems. Roger Federer extended the win-win series in the confrontation with Philip Krajinovic and confidently went into the third round. The Swiss had an almost perfect match and exceeded their counterparts in almost all key components, and it is especially worth paying attention to 14 aces. The last time he was also menacing at the US Open, when he filed 16 times through a duel with Damir Jumhur. And this despite the fact that he did not make a single double mistake.

In turn, Novak Djokovic dealt with Tatsuma Ito. When hitting the first ball, the Serb practically did not leave his opponent any chances, having won 43 draws out of 46 and, as a result, did not allow him to earn a single break point. He himself nine times had a chance to take a vis-a-vis and succeeded in five cases.

2️⃣1️⃣ / 2️⃣1️⃣ @ rogerfederer maintains his peRFect record of having always reached the third round at the #AusOpen, def. Filip Krajinovic 6-1 6-4 6-1. # AO2020pic.twitter.com / 852qUhDFUr

Thus, Djokovic celebrated another success at the Australian Open and was only the second tennis player in history to win 70 meetings in three Grand Slam tournaments. Before him, this bar obeyed Federer, who remains the only athlete with at least 70 triumphs in each of the four majors.

It is worth noting that already this year Djokovic can make him a company. For this, he lacks only two victories at the Roland Garros. At the moment, he won 68 times on Paris courts, and lost in 14 cases.

Also in the next round went Stefanos Tsitsipas and Roberto Bautista-Agut. The Spaniard defeated the American Michael Mmo in a tense match, and the Greek did not even have to go to court. His opponent Philip Kolschreiber has acted in film because of an injury.

It's almost like he's won this seven times or something 😉👏 # AO2020 | #AusOpen | @ DjokerNolepic.twitter.com / qLBg1kdtV5

Five-set duel

Perhaps the main sensation was the departure of Matteo Berrettini. He never got along in Melbourne, and the current tournament was a confirmation of this. If over the past two years the Italian has always flown out in the first round, this time he stopped in the second, but this can hardly be called a success for the eighth racket of the world.

An impenetrable obstacle was Tennis Sandgren, who is a formidable rival for top major athletes. In total, in his career he defeated dozens of the strongest four times and did it exclusively at the Australian Open and Wimbledon. In 2018 in Melbourne, he alternately sorted out with Stan Wavrinka and Dominic Tim, and a year later in London turned out to be stronger than Fabio Fognini.

At the same time, Fognini himself held the second five-set match in two days. In general, his plot was similar to Sandgren's duel with Berretini. Fabio won two sets, after which he was noticeably tired and allowed Jordan Thompson to restore parity. But in the final game he gathered and won a ticket to the third round. And in this he was not prevented even by 77 unforced errors - 30 more than his opponent.

The day was also unsuccessful for Grigor Dimitrov. The Bulgarian in five sets lost to Tommy Paul and for the first time since 2013 he could not go beyond the second round. It is noteworthy that before the current tournament, the American did not have a single success in majors.

Dimitrov unsuccessfully started the match and lost the first two sets, but then restored the status quo, after which he was six steps away from the victory six times, but could not take advantage of any of the chances. Paul won the tie-break and earned the right to fight Marton Fuchovich for a ticket to the 1/8 finals.