Konta ends 29-year Aussie drought for British women

Former champion, Maria Sharapova, recovered from losing a second-set tiebreak to put away unseeded American Lauren Davis 6-1 6-7 6-love and set up an intriguing fourth round match with rising Swiss talent Belinda Bencic.

She made few mistakes in a dominant display and broke in the first game of the second set with outgunned Kasatkina struggling against the Serena weaponry.

Raonic bids to dock in the last 16 with a win over number 23 Viktor Troicki. Isner has only made the round of 16 at the tournament once before, in 2010.

“I thought I played pretty well in the other matches, though – my first match I thought I gave a great effort, and my second match, under the circumstances, I thought I played pretty well, I thought”. Isner leads the tournament with 101 aces in three matches.

– Margarita Gasparyan wins the battle of Russians: The 21-year-old with a one-handed backhand held off Russian-born Yulia Putintseva 6-3, 6-4 in a feisty battle that was long delayed by rain.

Raonic trailed 4-1 in the third set before winning five consecutive games and the match.

Rounding out the winners were Australia’s own Daria “DASHA” Gavrilova, who won a 6-4, 4-6, 11-9 thriller against No. 28 seed Kristina Mladenovic, and No. 10 seed Carla Suárez Navarro, who advanced when Elizaveta Kulichkova was forced to retire from their match down 6-4, 2-0 due to a back injury.

But Kasatkina was advised by her coach to stick to the junior circuit for a while longer to gain more experience and she says she’s glad she took his word for it. Azarenka, who won the Australian Open in 2012 and 2013, plays Japanese qualifier Naomi Osaka.

Britain’s Johanna Konta reacts after winning her third round match against Czech Republic’s Denisa Allertova at the Australian Open tennis tournament at Melbourne Park, Australia, today.

Azarenka said after the match, “It wasn’t easy for sure, especially when you don’t know who you play….”

– The depth is real: Talk to any veteran and she’ll tell you: the game is tougher than it used to be.

There are now 20 women seeds out after No 3 Garbine Muguruza, last year’s Wimbledon finalist, lost 6-3 6-3 to world No 48 Barbora Strycova.

The 18-year-old said she was not intimidated by the prospect of playing a five-times grand slam victor as she looks to reach a second quarter-final at a major by matching her breakthrough run at the 2014 U.S. Open.

World number one Serena Williams admits her game is coming together after she recorded a straight-sets win over Daria Kasatkina.

Johanna Konta has become the first British woman to reach the fourth round at the Australian Open in 29 years.

After defeating Denisa Allertova 6-2, 6-2 in the third round Saturday, Konta was complimented by her on-court interviewer for having “an Aussie accent with a tinge of British” when she speaks.

She came into the event as the world’s 69th-ranked player but was no match for the composed and massively experienced American.

Jo Durie was the last player to reach the last 16 here and also reached the Wimbledon quarter-finals in 1984.