Australian Open 2018: Women's Day 6 review
While Day 5 saw the beginning of the third round of action in the Women's division, with many players such as second seed Caroline Wozniacki and Elina Svitolina winning their respective games, Day 6 saw the completion of the remaining third round matches.
In the marquee match and battle of former Australian Open champions, Angelique Kerber easily beat Maria Sharapova 6-1, 6-3. Kerber took control right from the start, breaking Sharapova in the very first game.
Kerber played aggressively and broke Sharapova twice more in the set. Kerber continued her form in the second set again breaking Sharapova's first service game. Sharapova broke back immediately but Kerber again gets the break in the 8th game. She then won the match on the second of her three match points.
World No. 1 Simona Halep overcame American Lauren Davis 4-6, 6-4, 15-13. The top seed saved three match points in the epic final set which lasted two hours and 12 minutes out of a total match time of three hours and 45 minutes. The match equalled the longest match in terms of games played at the Australian Open. In 1996 Chanda Rubin had also taken 48 games to beat Arantxa Sanchez Vicario 6-4, 2-6, 16-14 in the quarter-finals.
Sixth seed Karolina Pliskova beat fellow Czech, Lucie Safarova 7-6(6), 7-5. She will next play Barbora Strycova who beat lucky loser, Bernarda Pera 6-2, 6-2. American Madison Keys advanced by beating Ana Bogdan 6-3, 6-4 and will face Caroline Garcia who took out Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-3, 5-7, 6-2.
Australian hope Ashleigh Barty lost to Naomi Osaka 6-4, 6-2. Osaka will play Halep next. Hsieh Su-Wei, who upset third seed Garbine Muguruza in the previous round, produced another upset by beating 26th seed Agnieszka Radwanska 6-2, 7-5. Hsieh will take on Kerber next.