Maria Sharapova outlasts Lauren Davis at Australian Open

On Friday in Melbourne, she did it again, handling OH native Lauren Davis 6-1, 6-7 (5), 6-0 to reach the fourth round of the Australian Open.

Djokovic took 25 minutes to win the first set against No. 28-seeded Andreas Seppi but needed nearly an hour in the next two, saving two set points in the tiebreaker before winning 6-1, 7-5, 7-6 (6) win on Margaret Court Arena.

The five-time grand slam champion lost just two points on her serve in the first set while breaking Davis twice, but her touch deserted her in the second as the American warmed to her task.

Maria Sharapova racked up the 600th win of her career in the Australian Open on Friday, with Serena Williams also making round four. He reached the semifinals a year ago before losing to four-time finalist Andy Murray, his best run at the season’s first Grand Slam tournament. Bencic is more than capable of threatening Sharapova; last summer in Toronto, Bencic took out current world No. 1 Serena Williams and No. 2 Simona Halep to win the title. Bencic rallied past Kateryna Bondarenko 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 in the opening match Thursday on Rod Laver Arena.

Radwanska also caught the eye in a 6-4 6-0 win over Monica Puig, while home favourite Daria Gavrilova overcame Kristina Mladenovic in a thriller to reach the fourth round of a grand slam for the first time.

Federer will next play David Goffin, who defeated Dominic Thiem 6-1, 3-6, 7-6, 7-5 to become the first Belgian man to reach the Round of 16 at the Australian Open since 2005. Davis finally won the set when Sharapova sent a forehand wide. “So I got very different things from both of them”, Sharapova said. She said Puig “was playing with incredible intensity, I was really in trouble in that first set”. “I had a good preparation”.

AND ELSEWHERE: Qualifier Zhang Shuai, who beat No. 2-seeded Simon Halep in the first round, plays Varvara Lepchenko.

In order to beat Bencic, Sharapova will need to play like she did in the first and third sets against Davis and not the second.

As to the future, it begins with a fourth-round clash here against Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic and Sharapova said she intends to stick around for a long time yet.

Garcia-Lopez 7-5, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4; Friedsam d. Got to Melbourne earlier than I wanted to, but it gave me a chance to practise here this week.

“When I’m aggressive and I have depth on my shots, it’s just good to have that variety to bring (players) in, to move forward myself”, said Sharapova, who next faces American Lauren Davis.

Maria Sharapova beat Lauren Davis in the third round of the Australian Open.

Top-ranked Williams is still in contention in Melbourne, set to play her third-round match later Friday against Daria Kasatkina of Russian Federation. If I think about it like that – “Oh, I’ve been around the block, I’ve been to all these tournaments so many times” – that would seem quite heavy and would not really motivate me much.

With the rain having wrecked the doubles schedule, none of the Brits scheduled to play got on court as the priority was to push through the third round schedule.