Sports
Top seeds Alcaraz and Sabalenka breeze through
Australian Open favourites Aryna Sabalenka and Carlos Alcaraz made light work of their opponents to cruise into their respective last 16s in Melbourne.
Two-time winner Sabalenka saw off a stubborn fight from Anastasia Potapova 7-6 7-6 while Alcaraz, who is yet to win in Australia, beat the 32 seed Corentin Moutet 6-2 6-4 6-1.
World number one Sabalenka, 27, said the exploits of Novak Djokovic and 40-year-old Stan Wawrinka in the men’s singles have inspired her to have a long career as a playing mother.
“I feel like there is no age anymore in sport. It depends how you approach everything and if you have a smart team around you,” she said.
“So I feel like your career can be extended for, I don’t know how many years.
“Ideally for me, I would love to maybe have kids at 32 or something. But knowing me, I know that I love to accept tough challenges. So I feel like even after having kids I would love to challenge myself, like, coming back and see if I still have it.
“So probably we’re going to see me being that grandma on tour trying. Hopefully, I’ll be pushing these young girls.”
Alcaraz enjoyed himelf on court as both men produced tweeners, drop shots and lobs aplenty, with Moutet pulling off consecutive underarm serves early in the second set.
The world number one needs the Australian Open to complete the Grand Slam and was in entertaining mood.
He said: “I had so much fun on the court. I think we both pulled off great shots, great points, there were a few highlights. I’m just grateful to play these type of matches.
“I said to my team, ‘I’m not going to run for another drop shot. I’ve been to the net like 55 times, oh my God’. I thought we were in a drop shot competition, but definitely he won.”
Next up for Alcaraz is a meeting with 19th seed Tommy Paul, who led Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 6-1 6-1 when the Spaniard pulled out.
