Elena Rybakina stops 2022 runner-up Collins to reach round of 16

Kazakh Elena Rybakina, seeded No. 22, beat American Danielle Collins, runner-up in 2022, seeded No. 13, 6-2, 5-7, 6-2 to advance to the knockout stages of the Australian Open at Melbourne Park on Friday evening. .

Rybakina, ranked No. 25, will next face the winner of the match between Poland’s No. 1 seed Iga Swiatek and Spanish qualifier Cristina Bucsa.

The 2022 Wimbledon champion hit 8 aces and 33 winners to book her place in the round of 16 at the Australian Open for the first time.

Rybakina opened her season with a three-set victory over Collins in Adelaide and moved to 2-1 against the American.

Before her victory, the Kazakh won against the Italian Elisabetta Cocciaretto (7-5, 6-3) and the Slovenian Kaja Juvan (6-2, 6-1).

Collins, ranked No. 11, edged Russian Anna Kalinskaya (7-5, 5-7, 6-4) and Czech Karolina Muchova (6-7 (1), 6-2, 7-6 (6)) during the previous rounds.

Melbourne (Grand Slam), other third round results (Melbourne Park, hard, USD 24,297,942, most recent results first):

Magda Linette vs. Ekaterina Alexandrova Laura Siegemund vs. Caroline Garcia Linda Fruhvirtova vs. Marketa Vondrousova Aryna Sabalenka vs. Elise Mertens Shuai Zhang vs. Katie Volynets Camila Giorgi vs. Belinda Bencic Nuria Parrizas Diaz vs. Donna Vekic Varvara Gracheva vs. Karolina Pliskova Lin Zhu vs. Maria Sakkari Madison Keys vs. Victoria Azarenka Iga Swiatek v Cristina Bucsa Kateryna Baindl v Jelena Ostapenko Bernarda Pera v Coco Gauff: Friday Jessica Pegula (3) beat Marta Kostyuk: 6-0, 6-2 Barbora Krejcikova (20) beat Anhelina Kalinina: 6-2, 6 -3