Big names largely untroubled on day four Thursday's matches in Melbourne largely went the way of favourites and big names, with the likes of Karolina Pliskova, Elina Svitolina, Madison Keys, Naomi Osaka, Serena Williams and Simona Halep all progressing - only Halep was extremely tested, as anticipated, by Sofia Kenin. Our pick, Garbine Muguruza, has just lost a second-set tiebreak to go into a deciding set against Johanna Konta at the time of writing on what has been a very delayed day four - the match didn't get underway until after 1:30pm UK time, considerably later than the originally scheduled start. There's a quick turnaround with tomorrow's matches getting started at midnight UK time, and there are a couple of value spots on the schedule worth discussing. Big prospect Anisimova capable of troubling Sabalenka Firstly, if she's fit, I anticipate Amanda Anisimova will give Aryna Sabalenka a very tough match, although the market is understandably bullish on the chances of the older prospect, Sabalenka, pricing her at a short-looking 1.4640/85. No doubt, Sabalenka's stats are strong, with a bias towards being pretty serve-orientated, but Anisimova's numbers since her main tour debut are magnificent. In my opinion, the 17 year old is THE number one prospect on the WTA Tour right now - a huge accolade given the sheer volume of young talent around currently in the women's game - and on hard court in the last 12 months, Anisimova is running at 107.0% combined service/return points won. These are stunning numbers for a young player, particularly one who is just 17 years of age, and I have little doubt that if she can continue her career progression, Anisimova will be one of the players to beat on tour in the not too distant future. Pavlyuchenkova looking under-rated for Sasnovich clash Our solitary defeat so far in the women's tournament came at the hands of Aliaksandra Sasnovich, with a strong performance on break points on serve being the main driver of her victory over Anett Kontaveit, and the Belarussian looks a little over-rated again at 1.758/11 for her match with Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. 'Pav' arrives here in good touch following a surprise win over one of our outright picks, Kiki Bertens, and I want to discuss her data in a little more detail. Over the last 12 months, Pav has a losing record on hard court (11-13) but there are some clear reasons as to why this is the case. Firstly, she's 1-3 in tiebreaks, and secondly, she's running at worse than 4% underperformance on break points on return, based on her return points won percentage. In addition, Pavlyuchenkova's hold/break data is solid enough (104.8% combined), as is her service/return points won combined percentage (101.4%), and both of these combined figures indicate that she's clearly an above average WTA hard courter, and that it would probably be a fair reflection of her ability for her record to be something like 14-10 or 15-9, as opposed to that 11-13 record. Given this, it seems reasonable to assume that Pavlyuchenkova is under-rated by the market on hard court, and it's also worth noting that she won two hard court matches against Sasnovich relatively easily last year, including a 6-3 6-4 win in Tokyo towards the end of last season. Has Sasnovich improved so much that Pavlyuchenkova's price of around 1.804/5 that day should be virtually reversed? It is difficult to make that argument, in my view. Martic not without a chance against inconsistent Stephens In other matches, Petra Martic isn't without a chance at 3.505/2 against Sloane Stephens, although of course it depends which version of the highly inconsistent Stephens turns up. She does seem to have a propensity to play well on the big stage though, which is probably why the market is quite bullish of Stephens' chances. We also see a couple of very interesting clashes, with Petra Kvitova not a certainty at 1.292/7 to progress past Belinda Bencic, while Maria Sharapova versus Caroline Wozniacki is the undoubted match of the day. Wozniacki is a marginal favourite for this, which my model agreed with. *** Follow Dan on Twitter @TennisRatings<doc-sep>MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Defending champion Caroline Wozniacki was knocked out of the Australian Open by former world number one Maria Sharapova, who fired a warning to the rest of the field with a resounding three-set win on Friday. Tennis - Australian Open - Third Round - Melbourne Park, Melbourne, Australia, January 18, 2019. Switzerland's Roger Federer in action during the match against Taylor Fritz of the U.S. REUTERS/Aly Song Five-times Grand Slam winner Sharapova struck 37 winners in a 6-4 4-6 6-3 win to set up a fourth-round clash with home favorite Ashleigh Barty. Wozniacki, who was competing as a defending champion at a Grand Slam for the first time, said it was just one of those days after being outplayed by her Russian opponent. “In tennis, you’re one on one, you battle and you do your best. One day you win, some days you lose,” the Dane said. “I gave it everything I had today. She was just a little bit better than me and that was really it.” Second seed Angelique Kerber celebrated her 31st birthday with a 58-minute 6-1 6-0 win over Australian wildcard Kimberly Birrell. In the men’s draw, 17-times Grand Slam winner Rafa Nadal needed six match points to overcome Australian number one Alex de Minaur 6-1 6-2 6-4 in a little over two hours. Defending champion Roger Federer produced a serving masterclass to put away American Taylor Fritz 6-2 7-5 6-2 under the roof on Rod Laver Arena. The 37-year-old Swiss will next face Greek 14th seed Stefanos Tsitsipas, who beat Nikoloz Basilashvili 6-3 3-6 7-6(7) 6-4. READ MORE Federer serves up Fritz blitz to reach last 16 Nadal subdues local hope de Minaur in third round clash Birthday girl Kerber completes Australian horror show Khachanov “ashamed” after early exit from Australian Open Tsitsipas hopes to be mentally ready for ‘legend’ Federer Kyrgios is better on court than behind mike, says Federer Sizzling Sharapova back in Grand Slam contention Dimitrov happy to fly under the radar in Melbourne Aggressive Sharapova eliminates holder Wozniacki Maria Sharapova v Caroline Wozniacki - match stats Sharapova raps Australian Open organizers over late scheduling Slideshow ( 2 images ) Cilic survives after Verdasco double-faults on match point Barty party continues with Sakkari win US teen Anisimova announces arrival with Sabalenka upset Tomic denies Hewitt allegations, calls him “liar” - report Studious Shapovalov hopes Nadal videos can help topple Djokovic Australian Open order of play on Saturday Highlights of Friday’s fifth day of the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam tournament of the year (all times GMT): 1400 CILIC SURVIVES VERDASCO TEST After saving two match points in the fourth set tiebreak, sixth seed Marin Cilic overcame Spanish 35-year-old Fernando Verdasco 4-6 3-6 6-1 7-6(8) 6-3 to reach the last 16. 1215 BIRTHDAY GIRL KERBER THROUGH TO SECOND WEEK Second seed Angelique Kerber celebrated her 31st birthday with a 6-1 6-0 win over Australian wildcard Kimberly Birrell. The German Wimbledon champion will next face American Danielle Collins for a place in the quarter-finals. 1045 RAFA RACES INTO ROUND FOUR Second seed Rafa Nadal was not pleased by a time violation from chair umpire Carlos Ramos on his sixth match point but he got the job done by beating Australian number one Alex de Minaur 6-1 6-2 6-4. The Spaniard becomes the first player to start an Australian Open campaign by defeating three opponents representing Australia since Phil Dent in 1979. When asked about fourth round opponent Tomas Berdych, Nadal said: “He has been off the court for a while but he played the first week of the season and did it well. “He has confidence after the comeback. When you are playing well after a tough time with injuries, that helps the energy even more. I predict a very tough match.” 0823 TIAFOE OUTLASTS SEPPI Frances Tiafoe was pushed to five sets in the third round but found a way past Italian Andreas Seppi to seal a 6-7(3) 6-3 4-6 6-4 6-3 win in three hours and 17 minutes. The American, who stunned fifth seed Kevin Anderson in the previous round, takes on Grigor Dimitrov next. 0712 DIMITROV DOWNS FABBIANO Grigor Dimitrov endured a stern test early in his third round match against Italian Thomas Fabbiano before the 20th seed prevailed 7-6(5) 6-4 6-4 in a little over two hours. 0708 SHARAPOVA KNOCKS OUT WOZNIACKI Former champion Maria Sharapova battled past holder Caroline Wozniacki 6-4 4-6 6-3 in a third round thriller. Denmark’s Wozniacki raced to a 4-1 lead in the opening set but Sharapova raised her level and reeled off the next five games to grab the early advantage in the contest. The second set followed a similar pattern before Wozniacki took advantage of Sharapova’s sloppy serving late on to drag the match into a decider. The Russian was not to be denied in the third set, however, as she closed out the win on her second match point in two hours and 24 minutes. 0704 STEPHENS OVERCOMES MARTIC American Sloane Stephens, seeded fifth, beat Croatia’s Petra Martic 7-6(6) 7-6(5) to move into the fourth round where she meets Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Former U.S. Open champion Stephens has won both previous meetings with the unseeded Russian, including a three-set victory at Beijing last year. 0439 TEENAGER ANISIMOVA DISMISSES SABALENKA American teenager Amanda Anisimova pulled off an upset by swatting aside 11th seed Aryna Sabalenka 6-3 6-2. The unseeded 17-year-old, who reached the quarter-finals at Auckland earlier this month, prevailed in 65 minutes to set up a fourth-round clash with Petra Kvitova or Belinda Bencic. 0344 FEDERER TOO GOOD FOR UNSEEDED FRITZ Holder Roger Federer cruised past unseeded American Taylor Fritz 6-2 7-5 6-2 in 88 minutes for his third consecutive straight-sets win in this year’s tournament. 0320 BERDYCH QUELLS SCHWARTZMAN CHALLENGE Tomas Berdych dropped the opening set but recovered to overcome Diego Schwartzman 5-7 6-3 7-5 6-4. The Czech missed the last six months of 2018 due to a back issue but has since returned to form, reaching the final of the Qatar Open earlier this month. 0310 TSITSIPAS POWERS PAST BASILASHVILI<doc-sep>MELBOURNE, Australia -- Friday at the Australian Open belonged to Ash Barty who secured her place in the last 16 at Melbourne Park for the first time in her career. Unfortunately, fellow Australians Alex de Minaur and Kimberly Birrell were sent packing by experienced world No. 2s Rafael Nadal and Angelique Kerber respectively. So, with five days of the tournament in the books, only three Aussies still remain in contention for singles glory. Ash Barty (AUS) def. Maria Sakkari 7-5, 6-1 It might have been a tentative start from both Ash Barty and her Greek opponent on Rod Laver Arena, with both players giving up early breaks in the first set under the roof, but as many have come to expect from the young Australian, her poise and clutch shot-making came through at the right time. From 3-3, after Sakkari broke back to level the first set, both players held serve until Barty found an extra gear in the 12th game, breaking to secure the first set 7-5. There were fears for Barty after she called for a medical timeout following the end of the first set, but any worries were quickly put aside when the 22-year-old rushed to an early second set lead. Almost untouchable in the second, she made only four unforced errors to her opponent's 11, and thundered down five aces (bringing her match total to 13) to set up an easy victory. Following her match, Barty downplayed concerns about the medical timeout, during which she received treatment on her hip and abdominal region. "It was just for a bit of reassurance while I was on court," Barty said. "I've come to know my body well enough to know when I might need a bit of assistance." Ashleigh Barty defeated Maria Sakkari to advance to face Maria Sharapova in Saturday's fourth round. LUKAS COCH/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock Now through to her first Australian Open last 16 match, Barty will face Maria Sharapova in what she says will be another "big test" from which she won't back down. "Sharapova is an amazing player and competitor," she said. "[But] I'm feeling more and more comfortable on the court that I can play my brand of tennis." Rafael Nadal def. Alex de Minaur (AUS) 6-1, 6-2, 6-4 Rafael Nadal has sent a third Australian packing from the Australian Open, this time 27th seed Alex de Minaur. There's not too many tougher tests in sport than going head-to-head with Nadal on a tennis court and on Friday night at a packed Rod Laver Arena, the 17-time Grand Slam champion showed his class, brushing aside de Minaur in straight sets. Nadal bossed the 19-year-old from the opening game, and although de Minaur showed plenty of heart, he struggled to match the Spaniard's power and aggression. Throughout the match, Nadal hit 37 winners to de Minaur's 21, while also winning 29 additional points. Alex De Minaur of Australia plays a forehand in his third round match against Rafael Nadal of Spain. Scott Barbour/Getty Images Some of de Minaur's best tennis came in the final game of the match when he rallied from 0-40 down to deuce, saving three match points in the process with some mesmerizing shots that even had Nadal in awe. He saved another two match points before Nadal eventually got the job done on the sixth attempt. Nevertheless, de Minaur's wins over Pedro Sousa and Henri Laaksonen has netted him AU$155,000 in prize money and we're pretty sure he'll come back to Melbourne Park even stronger in 2020. Angelique Kerber def. Kimberly Birrell (AUS) 6-1, 6-0 Queenslander Kimberly Birrell followed de Minaur onto Rod Laver Arena, but like her compatriot she was no match for her more experienced opponent. Angelique Kerber, the 2016 Australian Open champion and world No. 2, breezed by Birrell in 58 minutes, securing her place in the fourth round where she will face American Danielle Collins. Birrell was only able to take one game during the match. Kerber continually punished her weak second serve, with Birrell winning just five of 20 points when her first service missed the mark. Kimberly Birrell of Australia plays a shot during her third round match at the 2019 Australian Open. Scott Barbour/Getty Images Birrell also made more unforced errors (30) than she won points (27) as Kerber showed why she is one of the favourites to take out the Australian title again. Despite the resounding loss, Birrell can leave Melbourne with her head held high. She won her first ever Grand Slam matches and is certain to see her world ranking of No. 240 take a significant jump.<doc-sep>Alex win gives repeat Bolt out of the blue The last 16 players into the third round are now known after Thursday's action, which finished at around 13:30 UK time after a very long day four, and readers of this column were celebrating following Alex Bolt's triumph over Gilles Simon. Not only did the little-known Australian cover the game handicap, he shocked the French veteran with a five-set victory, and his reward is a third round clash with Alexander Zverev on Saturday. The German youngster, Zverev, was another five-set winner, with Jeremy Chardy fighting back from two sets down to level their meeting, while Kei Nishikori needed a final set breaker to see off the threat of Ivo Karlovic. Thiem defeat the shock of day four Amongst others, there were also wins for the gamble of the day Milos Raonic, who took three of the four tiebreaks to defeat Stan Wawrinka - who was friendless in the market - by three sets to one, while there were also wins for David Goffin, over Marius Copil, and Novak Djokovic, over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. We did, however, see the exit of Dominic Thiem, with the Austrian retiring when staring defeat in the face against the Australian prospect, Alexei Popyrin. Favourite Novak Djokovic is now trading at 2.001/1 for the tournament, and he's traded several ticks shorter than this, and after that facile straight-set win over Tsonga, has plenty of justifiable market faith. Of the other players remaining, only Roger Federer, at 6.25/1, Rafa Nadal 8.88/1 and Zverev, priced at 14.013/1, are shorter than 30.029/1. Schwartzman fatigue the question mark for Berdych clash Friday's matches are the first eight third round clashes, with events again getting underway at midnight with Tomas Berdych and Diego Schwartzman, and Stefanos Tsitipas versus Nikoloz Basilashvili the opening two meetings. In the former, Berdych looks short enough at 1.282/7 against a quite competent opponent, albeit one who is coming off the back of an almost four-hour five-setter on Wednesday. Will this impact on Schwartzman's fitness here? It's difficult to know for sure, but at prices I'd prefer to keep the Argentine onside. Tsitsipas looking short for Basilashvili clash As for Tsitsipas, I have mentioned that he could be ripe for handicap opposition at some stage in the tournament, and I think that tomorrow's meeting with Basilashvili has some slight potential in this respect. Bash was another five-set winner, needing to come from 2-1 down to defeat Stefano Travaglia, but it was considerably shorter than Schwartzman's match from a time perspective, coming in at a few minutes shy of three hours. This isn't that much longer than a lengthy best of three set match, so I don't anticipate it having a huge physical toll on the German - Tsitsipas' four-set win over Viktor Troicki was only 15 minutes less in duration. The Greek prospect is a very short-looking 1.384/11 against one of the most improved players on the ATP Tour - Basilashvili is now a career-high 20th in the world - although I'm not as enthused about the handicap line prices as I hoped they would be. Basilashvili +4.5 is 2.0421/20 on the Exchange, while the bigger +5.5 line is 1.705/7, although I think it will settle in the low 1.70s eventually. Tsitsipas didn't cover -5.5 against Matteo Berrettini or Viktor Troicki here this week, but covered the -4.5 on both occasions, so if you would like to get involved with opposing Tsitsipas on the game handicap, it might be worthwhile buying that extra game and take +5.5 on Basilashvil, as opposed to +4.5. Dimitrov again likely to struggle to cover big handicap line However, the match I would like to focus on for today's recommendation is a repeat of Wednesday's pick, with Grigor Dimitrov again looking short at 1.091/11 against Thomas Fabbiano. I discussed on Wednesday about Dimitrov's historical difficulty in covering huge handicap lines, and we picked up a solid winner with him failing to cover -7.5 against Pablo Cuevas. He's the same line against Thomas Fabbiano, and I don't see the Italian as a downgrade on hard court compared to Cuevas. We can get 10/11 on Fabbiano +7.5 games with the Sportsbook, and this is my preferred recommendation for Friday. De Minaur capable of testing King of Clay In other matches, I am very much looking forward to Alex De Minaur's match with Rafa Nadal. The King of Clay hasn't been troubled so far this tournament but the rapidly improving Australian is likely to provide his first real test in the event. Nadal looks a little short at 1.132/15 against a player on a huge upward curve. Roger Federer is also in action against another improver, in the shape of Taylor Fritz. Roger is just 1.071/14 to make it into round four, which again looks a touch on the short side. *** Follow Dan on Twitter @TennisRatings<doc-sep>
Maria Sharapova will face Ash Barty in the fourth round. (Photo by WILLIAM WEST / AFP) Australian Open organisers will be salivating after Maria Sharapova won through to set up a mouth-watering fourth round blockbuster against Aussie No.1 Ash Barty. Sharapova upset defending champion Caroline Wozniacki, 6-4 4-6 6-3, on Friday evening to advance into the round of 16. She will now face Barty, likely in prime time on Sunday night given her star power combined with Aussie fans wanting to see potential history. FOLLOW NIGHT 5 LIVE HERE, INCLUDING DE MINAUR v NADAL If Barty defeats Sharapova in the fourth round, she will become the first Aussie woman since Jelena Dokic in 2009 to advance to the quarter-finals of her home slam. Ironically, that year Wozniacki also lost in the third round - to Dokic. Sharapova came back from 4-1 down in the opening set to win it 6-4, then broke Wozniacki at 3-3 for the third set advantage. The Dane saved one match point but not a second. READ MORE ‘DANGEROUS AND UNHEALTHY’: CONTROVERSY OVER 3AM OPEN FINISH WATCH: FEDERER’S SON STEALS THE SHOW AT OPEN ‘THAT WANKER HAS F***ED ME’: YOUNG GUN SAYS SORRY FOR FILTHY OUTBURST THE 17YO FREAK WHO JUST BROKE A WHOLE HEAP OF RECORDS KYRGIOS’ DEBUT IN COMMENTARY BOX A “nervous” Nick Kyrgios has provided some laughter in the commentary box, as Roger Federer took down Taylor Fritz. Kyrgios, who was in awe of the Swiss Maesto’s clinical display, said he always had nerves playing against Federer because of his propensity to hit incredible shots. “It is almost like you feel like Roger is going for something outrageous so he could be everywhere on social media and make you feel terrible,” Kyrgios said. “It happened to me at the US Open.” Kyrgios was referring to an around the net shot that Federer hit in 2018. The Australian said he was so stunned by the shot that he wanted to give Federer a high five. “I wanted to have a little word. He didn’t want a bar of it.” Federer defeated Fritz, 6-2, 7-5, 6-2. BARTY CONTINUES THE AUS OPEN BARTY Ashleigh Barty has achieved a career-first, progressing through to the fourth round of the 2019 Australian Open. Australia’s big title hope needed a medical time-out after the first set to treat an apparent abdominal strain but returned to complete a hard-fought 7-5 6-1 third-round win over the tough Greek. Barty thundered down 13 aces and dropped serve just once, but looked ginger at times with her movement, no doubt the result of a gruelling workload of eight matches in the past 12 days. The 22-year-old broke Sakkari in the 12th game to snatch a tight first set before running away with the second set and the match, prevailing after one hour and 22 minutes under a closed roof at Rod Laver Arena. MORE FROM THE AUSTRALIAN OPEN HEWITT ACCUSES TOMIC OF THREATENING HIS FAMILY KYRGIOS’ SOCIAL MEDIA ACTIONS WON’T BE TOLERATED: HEWITT ANDRE AGASSI WEIGHS IN ON AUSSIE SOAP OPERA Andre Agassi suspects there will only ever be one winner in Australia’s Davis Cup war. And judging by Hewitt’s sensational return of serve to Bernard Tomic and the incredible Australian Open runs of wildcards Alex Bolt and Alexei Popyrin, the former world No.1 and four-times Melbourne Park champion may well be right. Bolt and Popyrin’s spectacular forays to the last 32 have blown Tomic’s assertion that the unheralded pair were gifted entries to the season’s first grand slam only because they were under Hewitt’s wing out of the water. “I don’t know about the politics and whatnot that go on and as Davis Cup captain what his responsibilities are,” the American told AAP. “I can only imagine. I only saw it as a player. “I probably took a lot for granted and I said regretful things in my own life about captains when things didn’t go the way I wanted them to go. “Lleyton, he’s been nothing but a competitor for this sport. I’ve always respected him. “He’s a fighter and I’m sure he’s going to fight on behalf of making his team as good as possible. “I’m sure he’s a pretty smart dude as well when it comes to that.