The Australian Open women's singles third round witnessed a major upset as No. 7 seed Jessica Pegula was eliminated by Danka Kovinić with scores of 6-7 and 2-6, becoming the second top-eight seed to be knocked out after Zheng Qinwen.
In the previous two rounds, Pegula had easily swept her opponents into the next stage. However, facing world No. 55 Kovinić, she was in poor form, narrowly losing the first set in a tiebreak and then being continuously broken in the second set, eventually suffering a 2-6 defeat. This marked Kovinić's first time reaching the Australian Open's Round of 16 and her second time advancing to the Round of 16 in a Grand Slam event.
According to statistics, Pegula became the 15th seeded player to be eliminated from this year's Australian Open. The other 14 include:
【5】Zheng Qinwen, 【10】Barbora Krejčíková (withdrew), 【12】Jil Teichmann, 【13】Anastasia Potapova (withdrew), 【16】Jeļena Ostapenko, 【17】Elina Svitolina, 【20】Karolína Muchová, 【21】Victoria Azarenka, 【22】Anna Blinkova, 【23】Harmony Tan, 【25】Liudmila Samsonova, 【26】Ekaterina Alexandrova, 【29】Tereza Martincová, 【31】Maria Sakkari
Among them, Zheng Qinwen, who finished runner-up last year, now only made it to the second round and faces a deduction of 1230 points, causing her world ranking to drop to seventh. However, Pegula, who stopped at the second round last year, even managed to increase her points by 60.
Additionally, six Grand Slam champions were also prematurely eliminated, including Sloane Stephens, Victoria Azarenka, Jeļena Ostapenko, Sofia Kenin, Naomi Osaka, and Markéta Vondroušová.
Moving on, let's take a look at which players have advanced to the Round of 16. Here are today's match reports:
From the upper half of the draw, Aryna Sabalenka, Mirra Andreeva, Donna Vekić, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Paula Badosa, Belinda Bencic, Coco Gauff, and Danka Kovinić have all advanced. There are still eight spots to be determined tomorrow.
As the defending champion, Sabalenka will face real challenges ahead, starting with the Round of 16 against Andreeva, who defeated Sabalenka at last year's French Open. If she advances to the quarterfinals, Sabalenka may encounter Vekić again, against whom she has a 2-6 losing record.
Compared to Sabalenka, Gauff's path to the semifinals seems slightly easier. After defeating the 30th seed Leylah Fernandez in the third round, she has now won ten consecutive matches across seasons, making her the top favorite to win the title with higher odds than Sabalenka.