Svitolina shuts down Gauff, Juvan shows guts at Australian Open

More from Down Under:
Kanepi ousts Kenin, Bencic sets Mertens tussle | Barty, Pliskova slip into third round

Over the past two years, Grand Slam show courts have been a happy hunting ground for Coco Gauff.  On Thursday, the teenager met her match in No.5 seed Elina Svitolina, who produced a watertight performance to move into the Australian Open third round 6-4, 6-3 in 1 hour and 17 minutes.

The Ukrainian, twice a quarterfinalist at Melbourne Park in 2018 and 2019, won 77% of the points behind her first serve, saved all four break points against her and broke Gauff's serve once at the end of each set. 

Svitolina efficiently shut down any hint of a turnaround before Gauff could gain momentum, and her perfectly balanced blend of counterpunching and offence outfoxed the 16-year-old tactically.

Svitolina said afterwards that she had been able to feed off the crowd herself.

"I missed that so much," she told the press. "I knew that Coco is all the time playing with a crowd, like fired up. So I was expecting her to be straight into the match and playing well, as it happened. I think I faced a break point the first game, and then from then on I was just pushing myself and I was playing great tennis. It was a really great performance."

Gauff, who ousted last year's defending champion Naomi Osaka here to reach her second Grand Slam fourth round, has now lost in the first or second round of her last eight tournaments.

"Today I feel like she just played better than I did on the pressure points," the World No.48 said. "I served probably the best I have served in a long time, to be honest. I just got unlucky on the break points. ... She hit her forehand down the line really well and it was tough for me to defend that."

The 2018 WTA Finals champion's reward is a clash against No.26 seed Yulia Putintseva, who overcame a 0-3 head-to-head to defeat Alison Van Uytvanck 6-4, 1-6, 6-2. The pair have produced memorable performances before. Svitolina's 1-6, 7-5, 9-7 victory at Roland Garros in 2015 was one of the finest matches of that season.

Svitolina has won the past five of their seven total tilts. 

"I know her from a very young age," Svitolina said of Putintseva. "I think the first time we played was when we were like 10 or 12 or something like that. ... She's not different at all. She's still a great fighter. She was screaming, she was all the time really pumped, as she is now. She lets her emotions go. We all grow, but at the same time we stay the same when we are playing tennis when we are in a fighting mood."

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Juvan overcomes sickness 

Juvan, 20, overcame Egyptian Mayar Sherif 3-6, 7-6(2), 6-3 in 2 hours and 39 minutes, despite vomiting courtside twice as the deciding set began. Notably, Juvan did not call trainers out for treatment, opting instead to battle. After winning a bruising match point rally with a forehand pass, the Slovenian sank to her knees in relief.

Even before Juvan began to ail, the match had been a contest of superb quality, one that belied the two competitors' statuses as qualifiers ranked outside the Top 100, but befitted the talent of two rising stars who are sure to be fixtures on the main tour sooner rather than later.

Juvan and Sherif both possess the full range of shots as well as the imagination to deploy them in creative ways. Consequently, both crowd-pleasing cat-and-mouse exchanges and subtle, intelligent point construction both lit up the run of play. Initially, World No.131 Sherif - the first Egyptian woman to win a Grand Slam main draw match - would demonstrate greater control of her flashy forehand to take the first set before quickly adjusting to Juvan's advances to the net to bounce back from a break down in the second.

But World No.104 Juvan played a flawless tiebreak to force a deciding set. Once there, her physical struggles seemed to sharpen her focus. The 2017 Wimbledon girls' doubles champion reduced her error count from 17 in the first set to eight in the third; slapping the ball carelessly out of bounds was replaced by cool-headed shot selection and flawless execution from the philosophy aficionado. 

"I'm so glad I was able to fight through it," Juvan said afterwards. "It means a lot, especially because I'd never been through the second round, and not even the first round here in Australia. It's something really big for me, more mentally than anything else. And I'm not going to surrender in the next round!"

Top seeds Hsieh, Strycova survive wildcards

Last year's doubles runners-up and this year's No.1 seeds Hsieh Su-Wei and Barbora Strycova kicked off their 2021 campaign with a hard-fought 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 win over local wildcards Destanee Aiava and Astra Sharma in 2 hours and 3 minutes, needing to overturn a break deficit in the deciding set. However, Hsieh's Chinese Taipei compatriots Hao-Ching and Latisha Chan, the No.5 seeds, were Thursday's highest profile upset victims, with the sisters losing control of their match to fall 1-6, 7-6(1), 6-2 to the Canadian-Mexican duo Sharon Fichman and Giuliana Olmos. 

Elsewhere, No.16 seeds and US Open champions Laura Siegemund and Vera Zvonareva reunited to dismiss wildcards Kimberly Birrell and Jaimee Fourlis 6-2, 6-1, while singles World No.2 Simona Halep's partnership with 16-year-old Australian Charlotte Kempenaers-Pocz was ended at the first hurdle 6-4, 7-5 by Arina Rodionova and Storm Sanders.

The last 32 at a glance

The third round of the Australian Open singles competition has been set, with 20 of the 32 seeds taking their projected positions. Two players have reached this stage of a major for the first time, Kaja Juvan and 19-year-old Russian Anastasia Potapova; Juvan is also one of two remaining qualifiers, along with former World No.5 Sara Errani. Potapova and fellow 19-year-old Iga Swiatek, the No.15 seed, are the only two teenagers left in the draw; while Errani joins No.10 seed Serena Williams, Hsieh Su-Wei and Sorana Cirstea in a four-strong cohort of thirtysomethings.

Six players will seek to break new ground by reaching the second week of a major for the first time. In addition to Juvan and Potapova, No.29 seed Ekaterina Alexandrova, No.32 seed Veronika Kudermetova, Jessica Pegula and Ann Li are all bidding to improve their previous third-round best showings at Grand Slams. Meanwhile, former World No.10 Kristina Mladenovic, who had not won a match at the Australian Open since her career-best third-round run here in 2016, was able to snap her losing streak and return to that stage after defeating Nao Hibino 7-5, 6-1.

Twenty countries are still represented at this stage of the draw, led by the USA with five remaining players. Three Russians and three Czechs also remain, as well as two Frenchwomen, two Romanians, two Kazakhs and - for just the second time ever - two Estonians. While Anett Kontaveit has reached her 10th Grand Slam third round and Kaia Kanepi her 15th, the two best Estonian players in history had only previously made this stage of the same major once, at the 2018 Australian Open.

[1] Ashleigh Barty (AUS) vs. [29] Ekaterina Alexandrova (RUS)
[21] Anett Kontaveit (EST) vs. Shelby Rogers (USA)
[11] Belinda Bencic (SUI) vs. [18] Elise Mertens (BEL)
[25] Karolina Muchova (CZE) vs. [6] Karolina Pliskova (CZE)
Kaia Kanepi (EST) vs. [28] Donna Vekic (CRO)
[22] Jennifer Brady (USA) vs. [Q] Kaja Juvan (SLO)
Jessica Pegula (USA) vs. Kristina Mladenovic (FRA)
[26] Yulia Putintseva (KAZ) vs. [5] Elina Svitolina (UKR)

Hsieh Su-Wei (TPE) vs. [Q] Sara Errani (ITA)
[19] Marketa Vondrousova (CZE) vs. Sorana Cirstea (ROU)
[14] Garbiñe Muguruza (ESP) vs. Zarina Diyas (KAZ)
[27] Ons Jabeur (TUN) vs. [3] Naomi Osaka (JPN)
[7] Aryna Sabalenka (BLR) vs. Ann Li (USA)
Anastasia Potapova (RUS) vs. [10] Serena Williams (USA)
[15] Iga Swiatek (POL) vs. Fiona Ferro (FRA)
[32] Veronika Kudermetova (RUS) vs. [2] Simona Halep (ROU)