The Latest: Djokovic into 4th round at Australian Open

He has beaten the Spaniard in all five career meetings, including in straight sets in the fourth round at the French Open last year.

He will play Hyeon Chung in the round of 16 following the South Korean’s five-set upset win over fourth-seeded Alexander Zverev earlier Saturday.

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8:50 p.m.

Tomas Berdych has ended the Australian Open campaign of Juan Martin del Potro, beating the Argentinian 6-3, 6-3, 6-2 in a third-round match.

It was del Potro’s first trip to Melbourne since 2014 — he missed the 2015 and 2016 tournaments with wrist injuries and withdrew from last year’s event due to a lack of preparation time.

Del Potro, the 2009 U.S. Open champion, had made it to the final in Auckland a week before this year’s Australian Open, losing to Roberto Bautista Agut.

Berdych, seeded 19th, will face Fabio Fognini in the fourth round.

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8:45 p.m.

A much-hyped match between two former Australian champions was no contest: 2016 winner Angelique Kerber beat Maria Sharapova 6-1, 6-3 on Rod Laver Arena to open the night program.

The result left Kerber as the only remaining Grand Slam winner in the women’s draw, with the loss Friday of French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko.

Kerber is on a 12-match winning streak after winning four matches at the Hopman Cup and five while winning the Sydney International.

This was Sharapova’s first appearance at the Australian Open since 2016, when she tested positive for meldonium and later was handed a 15-month ban.

Sharapova came into the match with a 4-3 career lead in matches, but Kerber had won their past two matches, including at Wimbledon in 2014.

Their first meeting came at the Australian Open in 2012, when Sharapova beat Kerber in the third round in straight sets.

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6:50 p.m.

Chung Hyeon is 2-0 against the Zverev family this week at Melbourne Park.

Chung beat fourth-seeded Alexander Zverev 5-7, 7-6 (3), 2-6, 6-3, 6-0 in the third round on Rod Laver Arena.

In the first round, Chung played Alexander’s older brother Mischa. Chung advanced when Mischa retired with a viral illness while trailing 6-2, 4-1.

The 20-year-old Alexander Zverev won five tournaments last year and has been tipped as a future Grand Slam champion.

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6:40 p.m.

Naomi Osaka clinched her match with an ace, beating local hope Ashleigh Barty 6-4, 6-2 to advance to the fourth round at Melbourne Park.

The Japanese 20-year-old’s win finally marked some success in the third round at a major — she was previously 0 for 5.

The match was originally scheduled for Rod Laver Arena, but was moved to Margaret Court Arena due to a backlog of long matches at the larger venue.

Osaka will next play top-seeded Simona Halep.

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6:20 p.m.

It took Fabio Fognini nearly eight years, but he’s finally avenged a fourth-round loss to Julien Benneteau at Wimbledon.

On Saturday, Fognini moved into the second week of the Australian Open after a 3-6, 6-2, 6-1, 4-6, 6-3 win over Benneteau advanced him to the fourth round.

Their 2010 match at the All-England Club was their only previous meeting.

Fognini will next play the winner of a later match Saturday between Tomas Berdych and Juan Martin del Potro.

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4:55 p.m.

Fifth-seeded Dominic Thiem has advanced to the fourth round at Melbourne Park, beating Adrian Mannarino 6-4, 6-2, 7-5 on Margaret Court Arena.

Thiem has now reached the round of 16 or better at each of his last six Grand Slam tournaments. He maintained his perfect record against Mannarino, beating the Frenchman for the seventh consecutive time.

He will next play the winner of Friday’s later match between Tennys Sandgren and Maximilian Marterer.

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3 p.m.

Top-seeded Simona Halep served for the match four times before prevailing 4-6, 6-4, 15-13 over American Lauren Davis in a marathon match at Rod Laver Arena.

Halep saved three match points in the 22nd game of the third set at 0-40 and Davis saved five break points in the 23rd game in the 3 hour, 45-minute match. The final set took 2 hour, 22 minutes and Halep won on her first match point when Davis hit a forehand wide along the sideline.

Davis twice had medical timeouts in the final set to have blisters on both feet treated.

Halep will play the winner of Saturday’s later match between local hope Ashleigh Barty and Naomi Osaka.

In other women’s third-round matches, sixth-seeded Karolina Pliskova beat Lucie Safarova 7-6 (6), 7-5 and No. 8 Caroline Garcia beat Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-3, 5-7, 6-2. Garcia will play Madison Keys in the fourth round.

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12:25 p.m.

Madison Keys is through to the fourth round of the Australian Open after starting Saturday’s program on Margaret Court Arena with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Ana Bogdan.

The 17th-seeded Keys, who lost in the U.S. Open final last year to Sloane Stephens, saved three break points serving for the match, finally clinching it on her first match point when Bogdan netted a backhand.

Keys will next play the winner of Saturday’s later match between Aliaksandra Sasnovich and eighth-seeded Caroline Garcia.

The big match Saturday had the only two women’s major champions left in the tournament playing each other — 2008 Australian winner Maria Sharapova vs. 2016 Melbourne Park champion Angelique Kerber.

That was the first night match scheduled for Rod Laver Arena, with Roger Federer to follow in his third-round match against Richard Gasquet.

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In mixed doubles play Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and Mate Pavic of Croatia are moving on.

They defeated Australian duo Alex Bolt and Lizette Cabrera 6-3, 7-5 in first-round action.

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More AP coverage: www.apnews.com/tag/AustralianOpen

The Associated Press

by Canadian Press

The Latest: Djokovic into 4th round at Australian Open

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