Two-time defending champion Sabalenka into the fourth round at the Australian Open

MELBOURNE, Australia — It wasn’t often pretty, but two-time defending Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka extended a pair of impressive streaks on Friday as she became one of the first players to advance to the fourth round of the year’s inaugural Grand Slam -tournament.

In a tougher-than-expected match, Sabalenka beat Clara Tauson 7-6 (5), 6-4 in a poor early serve by both players to open the sixth day of play at Rod Laver Arena. It was Sabalenka’s eighth straight match win to start the season after winning the Brisbane International 10 days ago, and her 17th straight win at Melbourne Park.

In addition, it has been almost three years – the 2022 French Open – that the top-ranked Sabalenka has failed to advance past the third round of any Grand Slam tournament in which she played.

Both players lost their first three service games, making it seven service breaks in a row as Sabalenka lost her fourth service game at love. After Tauson fired an unreturnable backhand cross court to set up a break point, Sabalenka managed a wry smile.

Tauson finally held a service game to lead 5-3 and Sabalenka also won her service game to stay in the first set. But no surprise – the Dane lost her serve while serving for the first set to leave it at 5-5 and eventually it went to a tiebreaker, which Sabalenka won despite leading 4-1 to take the opening set 63 minutes.

“The conditions are really hard to earn, heavy conditions,” Sabalenka said. “It was really important to get all those breaks back. It could have gone either way.”

In mostly routine men’s play, second-seeded Alexander Zverev beat Jacob Fearnley 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 and no. 3, Carlos Alcaraz defeated Nuno Borges 6-2, 6-4, 6-7 (3), 6 -2. Earlier, American Tommy Paul beat Roberto Carballes Baena 7-6 (0), 6-2, 6-0 to also advance to the fourth round.

Sabalanka broke Tauson’s serve in the third game of the second set, and from there the odds were in Sabalenka’s favor — when Sabalenka has an early break in a set, she wins it 88% of the time. But she still needed a break after seven deuces in the ninth game to put her in control and served out the match – after saving two break points in the final game.

“It was a great match, she played incredible tennis,” Sabalenka said. “I’m super happy that I was able to push myself. I told myself, ‘hey girl, you’re tough.’ So many times I thought I was done.”

In another early match on Friday, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova beat Laura Siegemund 6-1, 6-2 to also advance to the fourth round. Siegemund beat Olympic gold medalist Zheng Qinwen in the second round.

Friday also saw 11th-seeded Paula Badosa, who beat Marta Kostyuk 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 and 18th-seeded Donna Vekic, who defeated 12th-seeded Diana Shnaider 7-6 (4), 6- ( 3), 7-5.. And 14th-seeded Mirra Andreeva beat Magdalena Frech 6-2, 1-6, 6-2.