Bencic extends winning streak to seven to reach fourth round of Australian Open

Swiss Belinda Bencic, the No 12 seed, moved into the last 16 of the Australian Open by beating Italian Camila Giorgi in straight sets at Melbourne Park on Saturday.

Bencic, the reigning Olympic singles gold medallist, needed one hour and 40 minutes to win 6-2, 7-5 to reach the fourth round in Melbourne for the second time in her career (the first coming in 2016).

“I feel very good with my tennis so far” – Bencic happy but has more in front of her

Bencic, ranked No 10, has now won seven matches in a row. After beginning the season with a 1-1 record at the United Cup, the Swiss won the Adelaide 2 title last week before picking up three wins in Melbourne this week.

She will play the winner of the match between Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, the No 5 seed, and Belgian Elise Mertens, the No 26 seed, next.

“Feels very good, of course, but, I mean, it’s three wins now. It’s some good wins. But still, I’m going further. I’m ready for that,” Bencic said after the win. “I feel very good with my tennis so far. I feel like I have played solid. I mean, this is the way to go, just to stay strong during these kind of matches, as well. But still, you know, I have more in front of me, so…”.

The Swiss is yet to drop a set this week, beating Bulgarian Viktoriya Tomova (6-1, 6-2) and American Claire Liu (7-6 (3), 6-3) in her first two rounds while Giorgi, ranked No 70, had scored wins over Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (6-0, 6-1) and Slovak qualifier Anna Karolina Schmiedlova (6-4, 6-3).

Australian Open (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
• Aryna Sabalenka vs. Elise Mertens
• Linda Fruhvirtova vs. Marketa Vondrousova
• Shuai Zhang (23) beat Katie Volynets (Q): 6-3, 6-2
• Donna Vekic beat Nuria Parrizas Diaz: 6-2, 6-2
• Karolina Pliskova (30) beat Varvara Gracheva: 6-4, 6-2
• Lin Zhu beat Maria Sakkari (6): 7-6 (3), 1-6, 6-4
• Victoria Azarenka (24) beat Madison Keys (10): 1-6, 6-2, 6-1
• Iga Swiatek (1) beat Cristina Bucsa (Q): 6-0, 6-1
• Jelena Ostapenko (17) beat Kateryna Baindl: 6-3, 6-0
• Coco Gauff (7) beat Bernarda Pera: 6-3, 6-2
• Jessica Pegula (3) beat Marta Kostyuk: 6-0, 6-2
• Elena Rybakina (22) beat Danielle Collins (13): 6-2, 5-7, 6-2
• Barbora Krejcikova (20) beat Anhelina Kalinina: 6-2, 6-3

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