Sharapova overcomes gutsy Davis to reach Australian Open fourth round

At Rod Laver Arena, the match between fifth-seeded Maria Sharapova and American Lauren Davis has gone to a deciding set after Sharapova won the first set 6-1 and Davis took the second-set tiebreaker 7-6 (5).

Sharapova opened the match against the American with a comfortable 6-1 first set before Davis pushed the former world number 1 to her limits in the second.

In the next round Sharapova will face 18-year-old Belinda Bencic, who reached the last 16 here for the first time thanks to a 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 victory over Ukraine’s Kateryna Bondarenko.

Her only stumble came while serving for the match when she was broken by Hibino, but Sharapova broke back in the next game to clinch the match.

But Sharapova is a strong-minded woman, and has bounced back from injury and lack of match-play many times before.

“I actually hadn’t heard much about her, and I hadn’t seen too much of her game before I went on the court today”.

A Wimbledon champion at 17, US Open victor at 19, Australian Open champion at 20 and then four years later, having described herself playing on clay as “a cow on ice”, she won the French Open to complete the career Grand Slam.

After outstripping her previous second round best at the tournament, Bencic even became the first Swiss woman to reach the 4th round at Melbourne Park, since Martina Hingis and Patty Schnyder in 2007.

“I think it’s a proud number”, she said at her post-match news conference.

Kei Nishikori of Japan celebrates after defeating Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain in their third round match at the Australian Open tennis championships in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 22, 2016.

“I definitely had a letup at 2-1, 30-0”, Sharapova said.

Belgian 15th seed David Goffin defeated friend and training partner Dominic Thiem, with the Austrian losing 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (7-2), 7-5.

Bencic also said she was learning how to cope with all the media attention around her. “When you’re a good junior and you have the success early, you have to learn it and you have to deal with it”, she said. Two, Sharapova is renowned for her third-set toughness.

Maria Sharapova won the opening match at the Australian Open wearing Nike.

“I never thought that I’d be playing at this age, honestly”. She won her first ITF match in 2002 and her first WTA match a couple of weeks later. “This is where I played my first Grand Slam right on this court and I’m still going, it’s such an honor”, said Williams, a six-time champion who has a 70-9 record at Melbourne Park. “Is this is a friendly reminder that I’m getting old?”

Given the seesawing fortunes of this popular 28-year-old, that is some achievement, whatever the end result in this her 49th Grand Slam.

The fifth seeded Russian had to pull out of the leadup Brisbane International with a sore left forearm but was in full flight in a 6-2 6-1 rout of unseeded Belarusian Aliaksandra Sasnovich, the early match at the Rod Laver Arena.