Australian Open day seven wrap: Women’s stars dumped out in Melbourne

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Tennis365
January 22, 2023

The Australian Open women’s draw lost its two biggest names on Sunday as Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff fell within half an hour of each other.

Swiatek was beaten by Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina while Gauff lost to Jelena Ostapenko. Third seed Jessica Pegula, now the highest seed left, continued to look strong in a 7-5 6-2 win over Barbora Krejcikova.

Stefanos Tsitsipas survived a five-set battle with Jannik Sinner, while Jiri Lehecka upset Felix Auger-Aliassime and Sebastian Korda saw off Hubert Hurkacz.

Picture of the day

Coco Gauff serves (Asanka Brendon Ratnayake/AP)

Instagram post of the day

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Andy Murray (@andymurray)

Stat of the day

With Elena Rybakina defeating No. 1 seed Iga Swiatek today, this year's #AusOpen will be the first Grand Slam tournament in the Open Era where the Top 2 seeds in both the men's and women's singles draws have lost prior to the quarterfinals.

— ITF Media (@ITFMedia) January 22, 2023

Doubles delight

Fighting through to the #AusOpen 3rd round#BackTheBrits 🇬🇧 pic.twitter.com/9uMEB2paXg

— LTA (@the_LTA) January 22, 2023

British interest in singles may have ended but several players are still going strong in doubles. Neal Skupski, with Dutch partner Wesley Koolhof, and Joe Salisbury and American Rajeev Ram are through to the third round in men’s doubles while Jamie Murray and American Taylor Townsend are into the mixed quarter-finals.

Bidding farewell

Today on Jan. 22, I made a decision to retire.
Thank you, everyone!@UQAmbassadors @yonex_jp @HondaJP @ANA_travel_info @in_jelly_ @reitakuuniv @BNYMellon @NEC_jp_pr @irctire_bike #oxengineering pic.twitter.com/76UVj3LCvd

— 国枝慎吾/Shingo Kunieda (@shingokunieda) January 22, 2023

Wheelchair tennis great Shingo Kunieda, winner of 50 grand-slam titles, including a record 28 in singles, is calling it a day.

Fallen seeds

Women: Iga Swiatek (1), Coco Gauff (7), Barbora Krejcikova (20).

Men: Felix Auger-Aliassime (6), Hubert Hurkacz (10), Yoshihito Nishioka (31).

Australian Open day seven results

Collated results from Day 7 of the Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament at Melbourne Park on Sunday:

Men’s singles

4th round

Karen Khachanov (RUS x18) bt Yoshihito Nishioka (JPN x31) 6-0, 6-0, 7-6 (7/4)

Sebastian Korda (USA x29) bt Hubert Hurkacz (POL x10) 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, 1-6, 7-6 (10/7)

Stefanos Tsitsipas (GRE x3) bt Jannik Sinner (ITA x15) 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 6-3

Jiri Lehecka (CZE) bt Felix Auger-Aliassime (CAN x6) 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7/2), 7-6 (7/3)

Women’s singles

4th round

Elena Rybakina (KAZ x22) bt Iga Swiatek (POL x1) 6-4, 6-4

Jelena Ostapenko (LAT x17) bt Coco Gauff (USA x7) 7-5, 6-3

Jessica Pegula (USA x3) bt Barbora Krejcikova (CZE x20) 7-5, 6-2

Victoria Azarenka (BLR x24) bt Zhu Lin (CHN) 4-6, 6-1, 6-4

Who’s up next?

The next test of Novak Djokovic’s troublesome left hamstring will come when he takes on home favourite Alex de Minaur in the night session on Rod Laver Arena on Monday.

A place in the quarter-finals will be on the line, as it will be for fifth seed Andrey Rublev and ninth seed Holger Rune when they do battle.

The pick of the women’s matches pits two in-form players against each other in Aryna Sabalenka and Belinda Bencic.

Iga Swiatek