Rybakina, Navarro, Kasatkina advance to Day 5 in Melbourne

Top 10 players Elena Rybakina, Emma Navarro and Daria Kasatkina moved into the third round of the Australian Open on Thursday, joining No. 2 seed Iga Swiatek as highly seeded winners on Day 5 Down Under.

Australian Open: Results | Schedule | Drawing

8th seed Navarro had the toughest afternoon of these players. The American twice fought back from a break down in the third set before overcoming powerful left-hander Wang Xiyu of China 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 in 2 hours 11 minutes.

Wang had earned his only previous Top 10 win over then-No. 3 Maria Sakkari at US Open 2022, which is also the only time she has made a Grand Slam third round. But Wang is also a former Junior World No.1 and she beat Navarro en route to the 2018 Junior US Open title.

However, Navarro and Wang had their first pro meeting in the first round of last year’s Australian Open, Navarro winning 7-5 in the third set on that occasion. A year and a round later, it was another tough battle between the 23-year-olds.

Wang used a lefty kick serve to lead 2-0 in the final set, but she was broken back at 2-2, during a game where she fell on the court chasing a well-placed Navarro groundstroke. Wang went up for another break at 4-3, but a strong return by Navarro brought her back level at 4-4.

At 5-4, Wang led 40-15, but Navarro hit a baseline winner to stay in the game. It all went the American’s way from there as she picked up four points in a row to steal a final service break and triumph.

After coming through two challenging three-setters in his first two rounds, Navarro will now face former world no. 2 Ons Jabeur of Tunisia in round 3. Jabeur got past Camila Osorio of Colombia 7-5, 6-3 on Thursday.

Jabeur won their only previous match 6-3, 6-2 on the clay courts in Navarro’s hometown of Charleston in 2022.

In another match early in the afternoon, no. 9 seed Kasatkina into the third round with a 6-2, 6-0 win over Wang Yafan of China. Kasatkina took 1 hour and 18 minutes to defeat World No.64 Wang.

The Australian Open is Kasatkina’s least successful Slam and she hopes to deliver a career-best result this year, in her 10th tournament appearance. This is just her third trip to the third round in Melbourne and she is yet to reach a round of 16 here.

So far this year, however, Kasatkina is through the draw. She has dropped just six games in her first two matches and is finally back at .500 at the Australian Open (career win-loss record of 9-9).

Kasatkina will take on no. 24 seed Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan in the third round. Putintseva, currently ranked a career-high 23rd in the world, cruised past former Australian Open quarter-finalist Zhang Shuai 6-2, 6-1 on Thursday.

Kasatkina leads their head-to-head 2-1, including a hard-court win at the end of last year en route to the Ningbo title.

Finally, Rybakina collected a 6-0, 6-3 victory over 17-year-old American wild card Iva Jovic at John Cain Arena. 2023 Australian Open finalist Rybakina needed 80 minutes to hold off the rising teenager and claim the 50th Grand Slam main draw victory of her career.

After defeating Junior World No.1 Emerson Jones in the first round, Rybakina was set to face Junior World No.2 Jovic in her second match. It was a routine start for Rybakina, who won the first seven games of the match.

Jovic, who is already ranked no. 191 in the PIF WTA Singles Rankings, then showed strong form and took three games in a row to lead 3-1 in the second set. But 2022 Wimbledon champion Rybakina regrouped and reeled off the next five games to claim victory.

Rybakina is now 11-1 at the Australian Open after winning the opening set. Her only Melbourne loss from a set-up was when she finished runner-up to Aryna Sabalenka in the 2023 final.

Rybakina will next take on Dayana Yastremska no. 32 in their first pro meet. Yastremska, who made last year’s Australian Open semifinals outside of qualifying, stormed past Danka Kovinic 6-0, 6-1 on Thursday.

More to come…