Marton Fucsovics celebrates winning match point against Stan Wawrinka. Photo / Getty
Marton Fucsovics celebrates winning match point against Stan Wawrinka. Photo / Getty
Bianca Andreescu and Petra Kvitota were the most high-profile losers on a bumper Australian Open day three featuring Serena Williams, Naomi Osaka, Novak Djokovic and Nick Kyrgios.
You can read about her exit and more in our coverage of all the action from Melbourne Park.
7.20pm: 'I feel like I'm dying'
Former Australian Open champion Stan Wawrinka wasted a big lead in the fifth-set tiebreak — and three match points — before losing to Marton Fucsovics of Hungary in the second round, 7-5, 6-1, 4-6, 2-6, 7-6 (11-9).
Wawrinka had won four of his eight previous five-setters at the Australian Open — and he nearly made it another. But five unforced errors in the last seven points of the tiebreaker cost him the match.
Ninth seed Petra Kvitova is out of the Australian Open after Sorana Cirstea pulled off a massive upset at Melbourne Park in a 6-4 1-6 6-1 victory.
In their second round clash, Cirstea won the first set before Kvitova came back with a vengeance to win the second 6-1.
But the momentum swung straight back to the Romanian who ran out to a 4-0 lead.
Kvitova appeared to have run out of legs and was looking somewhat distressed on the court in the warm conditions.
It's Cirstea's first win over a top 10 player in 3.5 years.
30 years old Sorana Cirstea gets one of the best wins of her life at Grand Slam level, beating 2019 finalist Petra Kvitova 6-4, 1-6, 6-1 to reach the 3rd round of the #AusOpen.
That's Sori's first top 10 win since october 2017.
A beaming Cirstea said "I'm very happy with this win".
"I was one of the few in hard quarantine so playing 2 hours in 30 degrees takes a bit more out of me than normal. I think it's impressive to come out of 15 days without hitting a ball and competing like I did today, I did not expect it."
Cirstea was a vocal critic of the quarantine system in Australia before the tournament.
Sorana Cirstea, one of the loudest and most frustrated voices from hard quarantine, defeats Petra Kvitova 6-4 1-6 6-1 to reach the third round of the Australian Open.
This is Cirstea's first top 10 slam win in nine years. Kvitova is the fifth top 16 seed out.
Sorana Cirstea, who was one of the unhappiest players early in hotel quarantine days, is into the #AusOpen R3 after upsetting #9 Petra Kvitova 6-4, 1-6, 6-1.
After being placed in hard quarantine, Cirstea tweeted: "I was planning to play the tournament because they promised daily 5 h quarantine exemption where we could go practice, do a gym session and rehab. This was the deal before signing up to this … but the rules changed 'overnight'!
"I have no issues to stay 14 days in the room watching netflix. Believe me this is a dream come true, holiday even. What we can't do is COMPETE after we have stayed 14 days on a couch. This is the issue, not the quarantine rule.
"If they would have told us this rule before I would not play Australia… I would have stayed home. They told us we would fly at 20 per cent capacity, in sections and we would be a close contact ONLY if my team or cohort tests positive."
Cirstea will play Marketa Vondrousova in the third round.
4.30pm: Serena sends huge warning
Serena Williams has taken little effort to dispatch Nina Stojanovic, demolishing the Croatian 6-3 6-0.
Despite losing the first set, social media was full of praise for Stojanovic but Williams was unstoppable in the second set for another huge win.
Serena Williams isn't just making fashion statements at this #AusOpen:
After a 6-1, 6-1 win over Siegemund, she dominated a very solid Nina Stojanovic 6-3, 6-0 to reach R3.
Her serve, always dominant, has been particularly untouchable.
Serena Williams looks like she's having so much fun, really enjoying getting to play at all after 2020 and playing great at #ausopen maybe 2020 set her free from the burden she felt to win first major after taking a break to become a mom, every other player beware
Canada's Bianca Andreescu is the Australian Open's first high profile exit. Photo / AP
Former US Open champion Bianca Andreescu's comeback from injury stalled Wednesday at the Australian Open when she became the latest top-10 player to be beaten by crafty veteran Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan.
Andreescu's power was no match for Hsieh's shotmaking in a second-round upset, 6-3, 6-2.
Andreescu beat Serena Williams in the final at the 2019 US Open but sat out all of 2020 due to a knee injury.
Seeded eighth, the 20-year-old Canadian seemed befuddled by the 35-year-old Hsieh's unorthodox game, which includes a two-handed forehand and an unpredictable mix of pace and placement. It didn't help that Andreescu served poorly, losing 17 of 23 points on her second serve. She was broken six times and fell to 1-3 in the second round at Grand Slams, with the lone win coming during her run to the U.S. Open title.
Hsieh is ranked 71st and has a history of inconsistency. But she's 8-2 against top 10 players, including two wins over the reigning world No 1 –- Simona Halep at Wimbledon in 2018, and Naomi Osaka at Miami in 2019.
"It's strange — I normally feel more excited to play with better players," Hsieh said. Another Canadian mounting a comeback also lost. Rebecca Marino, a former top-40 player competing in a major tournament for the first time in eight years, was beaten by No 19-seeded Marketa Vondrousova 6-1, 7-5.
Marino had been sidelined with depression and then a serious foot injury.
Ann Li, a 20-year-old American, reached the third round for the second major in a row by beating Alize Cornet 6-2, 7-6 (6).
If you're still catching up from last night, Ash Barty absolutely annihilated Danka Kovinic in straight sets on Tuesday night, romping to a 6-0 6-0 win in just 44 minutes to begin her Australian Open campaign for another year.
It makes you wonder what the point of enduring 14 days of quarantine was for Barty's opponent from Montenegro.
As sports reporter Sam Landsberger pointed out on Twitter, Kovinic spent 20,160 minutes in hotel quarantine — only for her tournament to end in just 44 minutes.
Barty won 50 points and lost only 10 all match. That's less than a point a game.
Amazingly, she won the first 16 points of the contest as she bounded towards the history books, becoming the first Australian since Wendy Turnbull in 1985 to win an Australian Open match 6-0 6-0. It was also Barty's first double bagel at a grand slam.
"It's tough out here, man, it's not what it used to be – but it's alright, blue collar way."
The South Aussie, who has battled loads of injuries in his career, had tears in his eyes during and after his emphatic victory that sets up a second round match against Stefanos Tsitsipas.
"At 5-0 (in the third set), I just felt this massive roar and massive cheer from the crowd, I started tearing up. It was a bit of a soft moment," he said.
"There's so much stuff behind the scenes to get back to that point that not a lot of people realise apart from my team and my friends and family. Definitely got a bit emotional."
