Tennis - Australian Open - Melbourne Park, Melbourne, Australia - January 25, 2026 Belarus' Aryna Sabalenka reacts during her fourth round match against Canada's Victoria Mboko REUTERS/Edgar Su
MELBOURNE, Jan 25 (Reuters) - Aryna Sabalenka extended her reign as tiebreak queen to book a fourth successive appearance in the Australian Open quarter-finals before Carlos Alcaraz reached the last eight with a Tommy Paul takedown on Sunday.
Third seed Coco Gauff also advanced to her third quarter-finals in a row with a pulsating 6-1 3-6 6-3 win over crafty Czech Karolina Muchova in a late-afternoon match at Margaret Court Arena.
A day after blistering heat caused mayhem and meltdowns at Melbourne Park, normal service resumed as a cool change brought relief for players, fans and tournament schedulers.
Twice champion and favourite Sabalenka was first out on a glorious morning, seeing off Canada's 19-year-old talent Victoria Mboko 6-1 7-6(1) in a match of two halves.
The Belarusian was at her irrepressible best as she crushed the teen in a 31-minute opening set and raced to a 4-1 lead in the second before Mboko produced a thrilling fightback.
Breaking Sabalenka twice on the way to a 6-5 lead, Mboko then hit a brick wall as the Belarusian raised her game to notch a 20th successive tiebreak win at Grand Slams.
"It's incredible to see these kids coming up on tour," said world number one Sabalenka, who has now booked 13 successive Grand Slam quarter-finals.
"She pushed me really hard today."
Having taken down one young gun, Sabalenka gets a shot at another in the quarters against 18-year-old American Iva Jovic, who thrashed Kazak veteran Yulia Putintseva 6-0 6-1 at John Cain Arena, two days after dumping out seventh seed Jasmine Paolini.
The men's tournament has seen few surprises of the magnitude of Mboko and Jovic, with the last 16 shut out by seeded players for the first time at any Grand Slam in the professional era.
Top seed Alcaraz did his bit in preserving the status quo despite facing arguably his toughest test of this tournament against 19th seed Paul, a semi-finalist in 2023.
For all of Paul's credentials, Alcaraz appeared in cruise control in a 7-6(6) 6-4 7-5 win in the afternoon sun at Rod Laver Arena.
Once a stubborn matchup for Alcaraz, Paul has now lost on three Grand Slam surfaces to the Spaniard following last year's quarter-final thrashing at the French Open and his 2024 loss at Wimbledon.
"I guess the way that I would describe it is, you know, he kind of, like, suffocates you in a way," Paul said of Alcaraz.
"He makes you feel like you have no time."
Alcaraz will face the winner of sixth seed Alex de Minaur, the home hero, and 10th-seeded Kazak Alexander Bublik, who play in the prime-time evening slot at Rod Laver Arena.
NO PANIC
Twice Grand Slam champion Gauff saw three match points slip through her fingers before prevailing in a proper scrap against 19th seed Muchova, a former semi-finalist.
"She definitely elevated her game and I thought I was sometimes a bit passive," said Gauff, who will meet the winner of Elina Svitolina and Mirra Andreeva in the quarters.
"I am really happy to get through this one today.
"I think today I didn't panic... I knew I just had to capitalise on those chances in the third set and I did that."
Three-times finalist Daniil Medvedev will have revenge on his mind when he faces American Learner Tien, who knocked him out of the second round in five sets last year in one of the upsets of the tournament.
(Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
