Netflix curse strikes again as Sakkari slumps, Zhu books spot in last 16

Chinese Lin Zhu reached the last 16 of the Australian Open by edging out Greek Maria Sakkari, the No 6 seed, 7-6 (3), 1-6, 6-4 at Melbourne Park on Friday.

Zhu, ranked No 87, will face Belarusian Victoria Azarenka, the No 24 seed, next.

The Chinese won against Canadian Rebecca Marino (6-2, 6-4) and Swiss Jil Teichmann, the No 32 seed (6-2, 6-2) ahead of her victory.

In the previous rounds, Sakkari, ranked No 6, defeated Chinese Yue Yuan (6-1, 6-4) and Russian qualifier Diana Shnaider (3-6, 7-5, 6-3).

She is the latest of a series of big names who featured in the Netflix documentary ‘Break Point’ to crash out of the tournament in the first five days.

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Tennis Majors

Melbourne (Grand Slam), other third-round results (Melbourne Park, hard, USD 24.297.942, most recent results first):

• Magda Linette vs. Ekaterina Alexandrova : Saturday in Melbourne
• Laura Siegemund vs. Caroline Garcia : Saturday in Melbourne
• Linda Fruhvirtova vs. Marketa Vondrousova : Saturday in Melbourne
• Aryna Sabalenka vs. Elise Mertens : Saturday in Melbourne
• Shuai Zhang vs. Katie Volynets : Saturday in Melbourne
• Camila Giorgi vs. Belinda Bencic : Saturday in Melbourne
• Nuria Parrizas Diaz vs. Donna Vekic : Saturday in Melbourne
• Varvara Gracheva vs. Karolina Pliskova : Saturday in Melbourne
• Victoria Azarenka 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