Sawt Falasteen - Melbourne champion Keys exits as Sinner bids to avoid same fate

Keys and Pegula launched day nine at a hot and sunny Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne in a showdown between two Americans who know each other well.

They are good friends and also host a tennis podcast together, "The Player's Box", and had even been planning to record an episode on the eve of their match.

But all that was put aside as a clinical Pegula dominated 6-3, 6-4 to set up an encounter with either United States fourth seed Amanda Anisimova or China's Wang Xinyu.

Pegula, 31, is chasing an elusive Grand Slam title, her best performance to date reaching the US Open final in 2024.

An erratic Keys made 27 unforced errors to Pegula's 17 and fired down six double faults as her title defence ended in the last 16.

"I've been playing really well, seeing the ball, hitting the ball really well this whole tournament," said Pegula, who has dropped just 17 games in her four matches so far.

"And I wanted to kind of stay true to that, and then just lean on a couple things that I felt like she would do, and I felt like I came out kind of doing it pretty well.

"I really had to focus on where I was serving, and be smart and kind of take some risk on some second serves, change up the pace as much as I could," she added.

Also in the women's draw in the fourth round, fifth seed Elena Rybakina plays 21st seed Elise Mertens of Belgium.

Second seed Iga Swiatek will be heavy favourite against Maddison Inglis.

Australian qualifier Inglis, ranked 168, features on Rod Laver Arena in the biggest match of her life.

The 28-year-old was given free passage into the last 16 when two-time Melbourne champion Naomi Osaka pulled out injured.

Reigning champion Sinner, seeded two, will similarly be strong favourite against fellow Italian Luciano Darderi.

Darderi, the 22nd seed, has never made it this far at a Grand Slam while Sinner is chasing a third Australian Open crown in a row.

Only Novak Djokovic has done that in the Open era.

Melbourne Park king Djokovic was supposed to play the 20-year-old Jakub Mensik in a night match.

But the Czech player pulled out injured on Sunday, sending 10-time champion Djokovic into the last eight without hitting a ball.

The 38-year-old Serb will play the winner of Monday's match between American ninth seed Taylor Fritz and the fifth seed Lorenzo Musetti of Italy.

In the last match of the day on centre court, United States eighth seed Ben Shelton plays Norway's 12th seed Casper Ruud in the timeslot when Djokovic was supposed to be on court.

Q.Bulbul--SF-PST