Australian Open 2023: Day six on Saturday

MELBOURNE : Highlights of the sixth day of the Australian Open at Melbourne Park on Saturday, all times local (GMT +11):

1620 SABALENKA DISPATCHES MERTENS

Aryna Sabalenka prevented her former doubles partner Elise Mertens from reaching the last 16 for a fourth consecutive year with a dominant 6-2 6-3 win over the Belgian.

Sabalenka, who won the Adelaide International 1 earlier this month and has not dropped a set in 2023, next faces Belinda Bencic.

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1600 DENMARK’S RUNE MOVES ON

Ninth seed Holger Rune beat Frenchman Ugo Humbert 6-4 6-2 7-6(5) to move into the last 16 for the first time in Melbourne, where he will face fifth seed Andrey Rublev.

The Danish teenager was trailing in the third set tiebreak after a double fault but clawed his way back to seal progress.

1446 FLAWLESS RUBLEV ADVANCES IN STRAIGHT SETS

Andrey Rublev came through a tricky encounter against Dan Evans to win 6-4 6-2 6-3 on Margaret Court Arena after firing 60 winners past the Briton.

Rublev, who did not drop serve, improved as the match wore on and even got a helping hand from Evans, with the Briton giving him a banana during a changeover.

“He helped me with some energy for sure,” Rublev said with a smile.

1430 BENCIC INTO LAST-16

Swiss 12th seed Belinda Bencic eased into the last-16 for the first time since 2016 after a 6-2 7-5 win over Camila Giorgi.

Italian Giorgi broke Bencic to level the second set at 5-5 before the Olympic champion broke back and served out the match.

“I’m happy I got a second chance to serve it out but overall I think it was a great match,” Bencic said.

1230 PLISKOVA PROGRESSES AFTER DOWNING GRACHEVA

Former world number one Karolina Pliskova brushed aside Russia’s Varvara Gracheva 6-4 6-2 to advance to the fourth round.

“It’s the third round of a slam so there’s never an easy match, no matter who is the opponent, no matter the ranking,” said 30th seed Pliskova.

1113 PLAY UNDERWAY AT MELBOURNE PARK

Third-round action began as scheduled on the sixth day of the year’s first Grand Slam.

The weather forecast looks good, with a high of 24 degrees Celsius (75.2 degrees Fahrenheit).