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MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — No. 5 seed Andrei Rublev beat Dan Evans 6-4, 6-2, 6-3 on Saturday to advance to the fourth round of the Australian Open for the first time in four years.
Rublev recorded 60 winners, including 10 aces.
“Every game, I am getting better and better,” Rublev said.
Rublev, who faces 9th seed Holger Roon or Hugo Humbert in the round of 16, thanked Evans for his help during the match by handing him a banana.
“I asked for bananas, but there weren’t any,” Rublev said. “Dan asked for bananas before and had two and he just gave me one. He gave me energy.”
Belinda Bencic reached the fourth round for the first time since 2016, when she beat Camila Giorgi 6-2, 7-5 at Rod Laver Arena.
Bencic was served in the 5-4 match, but broke in the next game and served with love to win.
“I’m really happy to have a second chance to serve you,” she said. “But overall I think it was a great match.
Bencic, who will next face Alina Sabalenka or Elise Mertens, won the warm-up event in Adelaide before the Australian Open, winning her eighth consecutive match.
“I think my coach has a lot of credit,” she said. “We started working together at the Billie Jean King Cup at the end of October. We’re making some changes… I’m out of my comfort zone, but so far it’s been going great.”
Former world number one Karolina Pliskova also advanced to the round of 16 with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Barbara Gracheva. Coming into her second week in Melbourne in 2019, Pliskova faced no break points.
“My serve, it can be a really good weapon,” she said. “I haven’t run much from the baseline.”
Pliskova next faced Chan Shaoui, who defeated American qualifier Katie Volinetz 6-3, 6-2.
Donna Vekic defeated Nuria Palisas Diaz (Spain) 6-2, 6-2 to advance to the fourth round for the first time in three years. Vekic will face Czech players Marketa Vondrousova or Linda Fruhvirtova in the fourth round.
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AP Tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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