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01/24 05:01 CST The Latest: Raonic beats No 6 Tsitsipas at Australian Open
The Latest: Raonic beats No 6 Tsitsipas at Australian Open
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) --- The Latest on the Australian Open (all times
local):
9:55 p.m.
No. 32-seeded Milos Raonic has beaten No. 6 Stefanos Tsitsipas in straight sets
to reach the fourth round of the Australian Open for the seventh time.
The 2016 Wimbledon finalist had five match points in the third-set tiebreaker
and converted his second with a booming forehand winner for a 7-5, 6-4, 7-6 (2)
victory on Margaret Court Arena. He finished with 19 aces and 55 winners in a
dominating performance against Tsitsipas, who beat Roger Federer here last year
on the way to the semifinals.
Raonic's best run in Australia was to the last four in 2016, when he became the
first Canadian man to reach the semifinals at Melbourne Park. He lost that
match and the Wimbledon final later that year to Andy Murray.
Raonic missed the French and U.S. Open tournaments last year with injuries but
says he's feeling better after an off-season where he could focus on recovery.
"It's fun to be healthy, to be playing well," Raonic told the crowd. "I can
really take a lot of pleasure in that."
He will next play 2014 U.S. Open champion Marin Cilic, who beat ninth-seeded
Roberto Bautista Agut 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-0, 5-7, 6-3.
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8:25 p.m.
American teenager Coco Gauff has beaten defending champion Naomi Osaka 6-3, 6-4
to reach the fourth round of the Australian Open.
It was the second upset with hours on Rod Laver Arena.
Two matches earlier, 23-time major winner Serena Williams was beaten in three
sets by Wang Qiang.
The 15-year-old Gauff lost to Osaka at the U.S. Open last year. This time, she
was too good. Osaka has now failed to defend her two major titels at the U.S.
Open and in Australia.
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8 p.m.
Tennys Sandgren is back into the fourth round of the Australian Open after
beating fellow American Sam Querrey 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 .
Two years ago, on his Australian Open debut, Sandgren became the lowest-ranked
quarterfinalist in 12 years after recording wins over top 10 players Stan
Wawrinka and Dominic Thiem.
Sandgren lost to Querrey in their only previous encounter, in the fourth round
at Wimbledon last year, and was 0-7 against Americans in tour-level matches
before this meeting.
Querrey reached the semifinals at Wimbledon in 2017 and has reached the
quarterfinals three other times at the majors, but hasn't gone past the third
round in Australia in 14 attempts.
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7:45 p.m.
Marin Cilic finally has a win over Roberto Bautista Agut at the Australian Open
after two losses to the Spaniard at Melbourne Park.
Cilic, who won the 2014 U.S. Open and was a finalist here in 2018, beat
ninth-seeded Bautista Agut 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-0, 5-7, 6-3 to advance to the fourth
round.
He broke Bautista Agut's serve in the opening game of the deciding set. Nearing
the end of the fourth set, Cilic called for a trainer for treatment on his
upper left leg.
Bautisa Agut beat Cilic here last year in the fourth round and also won in 2016
in the third round.
The 39th-ranked Cilic is unseeded at a Grand Slam tournament for the first time
since the 2014 Australian Open. He's been seeded in 41 of the 49 Grand Slams
he's contested.
Cilic will next play either Stefanos Tsitsipas or Milos Raonic, who were
playing a night match.
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7:15 p.m.
Defending Australian Open doubles champions Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues
Herbert have lost 6-4, 7-6 (3) in the first round to Simone Bolelli and Benoit
Paire.
The top-seeded pair converted only one of their five break-point chances, while
Bolelli and Paire converted both chances they had.
In other first-round doubles results, second-seeded Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo
Melo beat Guillermo Duran and Diego Schwartzman 6-3, 6-2., and Jamie Murray and
Neal Skupski beat Hubert Hurkacz and Vasek Pospisil 6-4, 6-4.Mahut and Herbert
were seeded fifth last year when they beat American twins Bob and Mike Bryan in
the quarterfinals and went on to beat Henri Kontinen and John Peers in the
final.
___
5:25 p.m.
Novak Djokovic helped return the status quo to Rod Laver Arena. In the match
following Serena Williams' upset loss to China's Wang Qiang, the second-seeded
Djokovic easily beat Yoshihito Nishioka 6-3, 6-2, 6-2.
Seven-time Australian Open champion Djokovic needed only 85 minutes to beat the
Japanese player. Williams was on court for nearly twice that long.
In night matches to follow on Rod Laver Arena, 15-year-old American Coco Gauff
will play defending champion Naomi Osaka and Roger Federer plays Australian
John Millman.
___
3:35 p.m.
Serena Williams has lost to China's Wang Qiang in the third round of the
Australian Open.
The seven-time Australian Open champion was down a set and a break and Wang was
serving for victory in the second set before Williams broke back and leveled
the match after dominating the tiebreaker.
Williams was serving to stay in the match when Wang broke her to clinch a 6-4,
6-7 (2), 7-5 victory.
In their only previous meeting, Williams beat Wang 6-1, 6-0 in 44 minutes at
last year's U.S. Open quarterfinals.
Williams's bid for a her 24th Grand Slam title to equal Margaret Court's
all-time record will have to wait. She has lost the Wimbledon and U.S. Open
finals in 2018 and ?19 and hasn't added to her collection of majors since her
title at Melbourne Park in 2017.
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3 p.m.
Caroline Wozniacki's farewell tour at the Australian Open is over. The 2018
champion lost her third-round match 7-5, 3-6, 7-5 to Ons Jabeur at Melbourne
Arena.
Wozniacki said late last year that she would retire from the game after the
Australian Open in order to spend more time with her family and because she has
been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in 2018.
She sat in her court-side chair wiping tears from her eyes before doing an
on-court television interview.
"I think it was only fitting that my last match ended with a forehand error,"
the former No. 1-ranked Wozniacki told the crowd, smiling through the tears.
Jabeur is into the fourth round for the first time a major. She will play
either 23-time major winner Serena Williams or Wang Qiang of China.
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2:45 p.m.
Serena Williams has rallied from a set and a break down to level her
third-round match at the Australian Open. Wang Qiang won the first set 6-4 and
had a chance to serve for the match at 5-4 in the second.
But the 23-time Grand Slam singles champion broke Qiang's get back on serve.
And when the set went to a tiebreaker, Williams won it easily 7-6 (2).
Williams is attempting to win her 24th Grand Slam title to equal Margaret
Court's all-time record. Two weeks ago she won her first WTA title since 2017.
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12:35 p.m.
The top-ranked women's player in the world is also the first one into the
fourth round at the Australian Open.
French Open champion and local hope Ash Barty beat 29th-seeded Elena Rybakina
6-3, 6- 2 in the opening match at Rod Laver Arena.
Barty will next play either Alison Riske or Julia Goerges.
After a disruptive day weather-wise on Thursday, mostly sunny skies returned to
Melbourne Park on Day 5.
Other top players in action later are Serena Williams, defending champions
Novak Djokovic and Naomi Osaka and 20-time Grand Slam singles winner Roger
Federer.
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