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Riske doubling her fun at Australian Open

3 min read
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MELBOURNE, Australia – Alison Riske of McMurray and Veronika Kudermetova of Russia have been a winning combination at the Australian Open.

Riske, who advanced to the fourth round in women’s singles, has paired with Kudermetova in doubles and the duo advanced to the third round Saturday with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Anett Kontaveit and Mandy Minella.

Riske and Kudermetova are seeded 13th in the Australian Open field and will play third-seeded Elise Mertens and Aryna Sabalenka in the third round.

Nick Kyrgios put aside a bloody hand, a hamstring issue, a tiff with the chair umpire and a resilient opponent who saved a pair of match points.

When the third-round thriller ended after about 4 ½ hours Saturday, Kyrgios dropped to his back behind the baseline. Guess what’s next for the home-crowd favorite? A much-anticipated matchup with a familiar, but decidedly not friendly, foe: No. 1 Rafael Nadal.

Kyrgios eventually got past No. 16 Karen Khachanov 6-2, 7-6 (5), 6-7 (6), 6-7 (7), 7-6 (8) with the help of 33 aces and what sounded like an entire country of supporters in the stands.

“This is just epic, man,” Kyrgios said. “Like, I don’t even know what’s going on.”

Kyrgios initially was a point from winning at 6-5 in the third-set tiebreaker, then again an hour later at 8-7 in the fourth-set tiebreaker, but he needed yet another hour to pull out the victory when Khachanov pushed a backhand wide.

“I was losing it mentally, a little bit,” Kyrgios said. “I thought I was going to lose, honestly.”

Nadal stepped things up during a 6-1, 6-2, 6-4 victory over 27th-seeded Pablo Carreno Busta that required fewer than 100 minutes.

“I needed to improve,” Nadal said, “and I improved.”

Roger Federer was pushed to a fifth-set tiebreaker before getting through to the fourth round at nearly 1 a.m.

That was part of a chaotic Day 5 – including losses by Serena Williams and reigning champion Naomi Osaka, who was ousted by 15-year-old sensation Coco Gauff – and the trend continued on Day 6 on the women’s side.

No. 2 Karolina Pliskova, No. 5 Elina Svitolina and No. 6 Belinda Bencic all lost in straight sets, meaning nine of the top 13 seeds already are gone.

Pliskova, the 2016 U.S. Open runner-up, lost 7-6 (4), 7-6 (3) to 30th-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Svitolina, a semifinalist at the past two majors, was beaten 6-1, 6-2 by two-time Slam champ Garbiñe Muguruza. Bencic, a semifinalist at Flushing Meadows last September, offered even less pushback while being defeated 6-0, 6-1 in 49 minutes by 28th-seeded Anett Kontaveit.

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