She broke serve at the first opportunity and fired down an ace 29 minutes later to seal the first set as Allertova, ranked 19 places lower at 66 in the world, struggled to keep pace at the other end of the court.
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“I know that she’s really the best”, a wowed Kasatkina said after the match. “That’s a definite significant memory”, she said.
Of Gasparyan, Williams added: “She has a great forehand up the line”.
Sharapova will face teenager Belinda Bencic in the fourth round after the Swiss overcame Katerina Bondarenko 4-6, 6-2, 6-4.
12th seed Bencic is the first player into the round of 16 after fighting back from a set down to overhaul Ukrainian Kateryna Bondarenko in three sets.
We’ve all been there, Rog. The Serbian won the first set with a comfortable score-line of 6-1. The last Australian woman to make it this far in Melbourne was Casey Dellacqua in 2014.
Radwanska also caught the eye in a 6-4 6-0 win over Monica Puig, while home favourite Daria Gavrilova overcame Kristina Mladenovic in a thriller to reach the fourth round of a grand slam for the first time.
Azarenka said after the match, “It wasn’t easy for sure, especially when you don’t know who you play….”
Staring at a probable fourth set with the Italian, who famously knocked out Federer in the same round of last year’s Open, the 28-year-old Serb fought off two sets points and won the next two to take the third-round encounter 6-1, 7-5, 7-6 (8-6).
They are the grand dames of tennis, Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova, and they have journeyed to the top of their sport from humble, disparate beginnings.
“The story that was supposed to be big is not really big”, said Djokovic, who on Wednesday angrily denied throwing a match early in his career. Not necessarily because of technology and fitness, but because of the depth.
“I never think I’m playing fantastic …”
“It’s completely different to when I started”.
Seppi, however, then rediscovered the form that troubled Federer so much a year ago and it was only successive lengthy rallies of 20 and 32 shots in the 11th game of the second set that enabled Djokovic to break, then serve out.
“I hurt my left leg in the opening round, it got worse in the second and today it was just not me on the court. They are young girls and they’re fearless”.
“We have seen time and time again that even with injuries players can still be very unsafe so that’s not a main focus for me”.
“I think it’s important”.
“I live in a crop top, sleep in crop tops”.
“So you have these girls constantly coming up, and that’s actually exciting that you have new faces”.
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For the second consecutive round, a medical emergency has caused Ana Ivanovic’s match to be suspended at the Australian Open.
