Australia Open: Djokovic, Halep through; Wawrinka, Kvitova out

MELBOURNE: Top seed Novak Djokovic and third seed Dominic Thiem were among those that advanced to the third round of the men's singles event at the 2021 Australian Open at Melbourne Park on Wednesday. In women's singles, second seed SimonaHalep overcame a scare against Australian world No.72 AjlaTomljanovic.

Serbian Djokovic beat American Francis Tiafoe in four sets to advance to the third round where he faces Tiafoe's compatriot Taylor Fritz. Djokovic won the match 6-3, 6-7 (3), 7-6 (2), 6-3.

Meanwhile, Austrian Thiem eased past Germany's DominikKoepfer 6-4, 6-0, 6-2 to set up a big-ticket showdown against Australian star Nick Kyrgios in the third round.

German sixth seed Alexander Zverev beat American qualifier MaximeCressy 7-5, 6-4, 6-3, and will face France's, Adrian Mannarino. Swiss 17th seed and former champion Stan Wawrinka, meanwhile, lost in a five-set marathon to Hungary's MartonFucsovics 5-7, 1-6, 6-4, 6-2, 6-7 (9).

In the second round of women's singles matches, Romanian second seed Halep had to dig deep to secure a 4-6, 6-4, 7-5 win over Australia's Tomljanovic. She faces Russia's VeronikaKudermetova in the third round. Ninth seed Petra Kvitova fell to a 4-6, 6-1, 1-6 defeat to Romania's Sorana Cirstea.

Third seed and US Open champion Naomi Osaka of Japan beat France's Caroline Garcia 6-2, 6-3 to advance to the third round where she faces Turkey's OnsJabeur. French Open winner IgaSwiatek, meanwhile, faces Franches Fiona Ferro in the third round after beating Italy's Camila Giorgi 6-2, 6-4.

Twenty three-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams eased into the third round for the 19th time in 20 appearances at the Australian Open with a 6-3, 6-0 win over Serbian Nina Stojanovic. She will now face Anastasia Potapova in the third round. The 2019 US Open champion and eighth seed Bianca Andreescu, however, lost 3-6, 2-6 to Chinese Taipei's Hsieh Su-Wei. However, Venus Williams refused to give up after suffering an injury against Italian Sara Errani and fought through pain before bowing out of the Australian Open second round with a 6-1, 6-0 defeat on Wednesday.

India's DivijSharan alongside Igor Zelenay of Slovakia will face the German pair Kevin Krawietz and YannickHanfmann in their first-round contest of the men's doubles event on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Ankita Raina and her Romanian partner MihaelaBuzarnescu face Australia's Belinda Woolcock and Olivia Gadecki in women's doubles. (IANS)

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