MELBOURNE. — ArynaSabalenka brushed aside teenager MirraAndreeva and Coco Gauff rallied past Belinda Bencic to reach the quarter-finals of the Australian Open and extend winning streaks as Melbourne Park stifled in the summer heat on Sunday.
Double defending champion Sabalenka’s 6-1, 6-2 demolition of Andreeva took her run of consecutive victories at Melbourne Park to 18 matches, while Gauff made it nine wins in a row in 2025 by seeing off the Swiss scourge of major champions 5-7 6-2, 6-1.
Tommy Paul was the first man to book his spot in the last eight with a 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 win over Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, who looked beaten up after back-to-back five-setters in the last two rounds.
“What he did is unreal, coming back from two sets down twice is amazing,” said Paul, one of four Americans in the fourth round.
“He deserves a round of applause and respect from me for staying out here today.
Sabalenka was stunned in three sets by 17-year-old Andreeva in the quarter-finals of last year’s French Open but it was not even close on Sunday morning as the world No. 1 wrapped up the victory in just 62 minutes.
“I’m super happy to get this win,” Sabalenka told reporters. “Mirra is so young, so mature, such a great player. She can play really great tennis.”
The Norwegian’s most recent deal was due to expire in two and a half year’s time.
The Belarusian had struggled with her serve in her third-round contest and said she was much happier playing in the hotter temperatures on Rod Laver Arena on Sunday.
“I’m super happy with my level today and I hope the conditions stay the same for the rest of the tournament,” she added.
Sabalenka will next face Russian veteran Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who ran away with a 7-6(0), 6-0 victory over Donna Vekic after the Croatian 18th seed injured her knee before the first-set tiebreak.
“That’s not the way you want the match to finish,” the 33-year-old said. “It was such a good, tight match before the tiebreaker.”
Third seed Gauff lost her first set of the year to open her contest against Bencic, who had won seven of her last eight meetings with major champions.
Ranked a lowly 294th on her return to the tour after having a daughter, the 27-year-old Swiss was put on the back foot when the 2023 US Open champion came out firing in the second set.
Gauff, a semifinalist here last year, continued to apply pressure and Bencic crumbled after two net cords conspired against her at 2-1 down in the third.
“Maybe a couple of years ago, if I lost the first set I might lose the match and I remember my dad said, ‘we’ve got to toughen you up’,” said 20-year-old Gauff.