Until the third set, Isner and Lopez had played five straight tiebreakers dating back to last season’s Queen’s Club encounter.
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Federer is the first male player to reach 300 wins in majors – Jimmy Connors was next-best with 233 and Andre Agassi had 224.
Roberta Vinci has lost 6-0, 4-6, 6-4 in the third round of the Australian Open to Anna-Lena Friedsam in her first Grand Slam tournament since beating Serena Williams in the U.S. Open semifinals.
An Associated Press reporter saw medics strap a man, who appeared to Sears, to a stretcher and place an oxygen mask on his face before carefully carrying him out of the arena as scores of spectators stood and looked on.
Azarenka is free from injuries for the first time in several years, and is one of the favorites here after winning the Brisbane International title two weeks ago.
Some top tennis players were eliminated in the first two rounds of the Australian Open and the competition is heating up as we approach the quarterfinals.
The win means the 2008 Australian Open victor sets up a fourth round showdown with Swiss young gun Belinda Bencic.
Once again ahead of a big Nishikori match we’re having to consider his fitness as perhaps the major factor and this time it’s a wrist problem that’s the issue for the Japanese.
Defending champions and top-ranked Serena Williams and Novak Djokovic had matches scheduled for the same time later Friday.
Roger Federer or Grigor Dimitrov awaits the world No. 16 in the next round.
“Wow. I’ve won 600 matches?”
It was a similar story in the fourth set, with Nishikori taking an early 3-1 lead that he was able to sustain, as he closed out the match.
Monfils sent compatriot Nicolas Mahut packing with a 7-5 6-4 6-1 victory and next plays countryman and qualifier Stephane Robert or American Rajeev Ram.
“He’s going to be tough… but I have been playing good and (have) a lot of confidence coming up, so it’s going to be a good match”.
Azarenka had 24 winners to only four for Osaka, who was making her Grand Slam main draw debut. Also been a little while since I’ve been in the round of 16 at this tournament.
Garcia-Lopez, the No. 26 seed, settled more quickly and got the early break.
“Yeah, my last match in 2015, he beat me in Paris”, Isner said of Ferrer.
“I have to give credit to (Garcia-Lopez), he was hitting hard, really flat balls that were tough to play”.
Johanna Konta has become the first British woman to reach the fourth round at the Australian Open in 29 years. His racket got a pummeling during the changeover, but he regained his composure and pulled out a tight second set before clinching the match.
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Isner is well remembered for his 2010 Wimbledon defeat of Frenchman Nicolas Mahut, winning 70-68 in the fifth set in a first round match that lasted just over 11 hours – with a final set of eight hours and 11 minutes.
