World No. 2 and title favourite Daniil Medvedev won over the Australian Open crowd on Saturday as he eased into the last 16 along with Stefanos Tsitsipas.
Former finalist Marin Cilic ended fifth seed Andrey Rublev’s hopes with an upset four-set victory. The Croatian, seeded 27, knocked out the Russian 7-5, 7-6(3), 3-6, 6-3.
Russia’s Medvedev, who was booed during his second-round victory over Australian Nick Kyrgios, had a more comfortable match as he dismissed unseeded Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp 6-4, 6-4, 6-2.
Greek fourth seed Tsitsipas, who is chasing a maiden Major, was also largely untroubled in a 6-3, 7-5, 6-7(2), 6-4 win over unseeded Frenchman Benoit Paire.
In the women’s draw, World No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka overcame the serving problems that have been plaguing her early season, but still needed three sets to get past 31st seed Marketa Vondrousova 4-6, 6-3, 6-1.
Simona Halep swatted aside Danka Kovinic 6-2, 6-1 in just 64 minutes.
Halep meets Alize Cornet, who celebrated her 32nd birthday by knocking out 29th seed Tamara Zidansek 4-6, 6-4, 6-2.
Rohan Bopanna and Croatian Darija Jurak Schreiber made a first-round exit from the mixed doubles losing to Kazakhstan’s Andrey Golubev and Lyudmyla Kichenok of Ukraine 6-1, 4-6, [9-11] in one hour and three minutes.
