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Aryna Sabalenka and Coco Gauff, 2 of the apical 3 women's seeds astatine the Australian Open, some reached the 3rd circular connected Wednesday.
And the top-seeded man, Carlos Alcaraz, joined them.
Top-seeded Sabalenka defeated Bai Zhouxuan of China 6-3 6-1 astatine Rod Laver Arena, and No. 3 Gauff won implicit left-hander Olga Danilovic 6-2 6-2 astatine Margaret Court Arena.
Alcaraz defeated Germany's Yannick Hanfmann successful a pugnacious lucifer for the Spaniard, who prevailed 7-6(4) 6-3 6-2.
"I knew helium (Hanfmann) was going to play great," Alcaraz said.
"I knew his level. We'd played a fewer times already. But to beryllium honest, it was tougher than I thought."
"The shot was coming arsenic a weaponry — forehand, backhand, truthful I had to beryllium acceptable for that," Alcaraz added of Hanfmann's changeable making.
Alcaraz, 22, is trying to triumph his archetypal rubric astatine Melbourne Park to go the youngest antheral to implicit a vocation Grand Slam.
Sabalenka won the Australian Open successful 2023 and 2024 and was the runner-up a twelvemonth agone against Madison Keys. She is aft her 5th Grand Slam rubric and has 2 trophies astatine the US Open.
Gauff has ne'er precocious past the semifinals successful Australia and has Grand Slam titles from the French Open and US Open.
Sabalenka raced to a 5-0 pb successful the archetypal acceptable but past needed 7 acceptable points astatine Rod Laver Arena to instrumentality the acceptable against the defensive-minded Chinese player, who utilized clever driblet shots to assistance her enactment successful the match.
Sabalenka volition adjacent look Anastasia Popapova, who defeated 28th-seeded and erstwhile US Open champion Emma Raducanu 7-6(3) 6-2.
"I was blessed to get this win, a tricky opponent," Sabalenka said.
"She truly stepped successful in the archetypal set."
Sabalenka led 4-0 successful the 2nd acceptable and overpowered the smaller Bai. Sabalenka adjacent tried a spot of serve-and-volley successful the match, trying to diversify her game.
"You saw serve-and-volley today," Sabalenka said.
"It didn't truly enactment well, but I did one."
Bai was making her 2nd quality successful the Australian Open and reached the 2nd circular for the archetypal time.
In different women's match, 12th-seeded Elina Svitolina of Ukraine defeated Linda Klimovicova of Poland 7-5 6-1. Gael Monfils, a fashionable 39-year-old Frenchman and Svitolina's husband, said goodbye astatine Melbourne Park successful his status year, losing connected Tuesday successful a first-round lucifer to qualifier Dane Sweeny.
In different women's match, Zeynep Sönmez of Turkey, who was highly praised during her first-round lucifer Sunday for assisting an sick ballkid, precocious to the 3rd circular aft beating Anna Bondar 6-2 6-4.
Sönmez played astatine 1 of Melbourne Park's extracurricular courts and the stands were crammed with members of Melbourne's Turkish community.
"I truly appreciated determination were galore Turkish people, and I felt similar I was astatine home," she said.
"At archetypal I couldn't adjacent perceive my ain thoughts. It was very, precise loud."
In men's results, 2021 US Open victor and 11th-seeded Daniil Medvedev bushed Quentin Halys 6-7(9) 6-3 6-4 6-2, 13th-seeded Andrey Rublev bushed Jaime Faria 6-4 6-3 4-6 7-5 and 19th-seeded Tommy Paul defeated Thiago Agustin Tirante 6-3 6-4 6-2.
