Day 3 at the 2016 Australian Open saw another top eight seed depart the tournament in Petra Kvitova. Her second round match against Daria Gavrilova was largely anticipated to be a tough one and proved to be just that with the Aussie player prevailing, 6-4 6-4. The only other seeded upset saw the in-form, Svetlana Kuznetsova defeated by a terrific, Kateryna Bondarenko. Here’s ten things that stood out on day 3…
For more on Shuai Zhang’s victory over Halep, have a listen to what she had to say in her press conference on the NCR Podcast… it’s an amazing story. You can listen at the link HERE from 21:13 or in the tweet below.
The only match I got to watch this morning was the one between Maria Sakkari and Carla Suárez Navarro. The Greek player acquitted herself well, giving absolutely everything to the encounter but the Spaniard’s quality was just too much in the end.
Belinda Bencic continues to ease her way through the draw, defeating Timea Babos in straight sets, 6-3 6-3. BB wasn’t broken once during the 65 minute contest and now doesn’t have to contend with Kuznetsova in the third round… an in-form Bondarenko won’t be a walk in the park though…
Here’s Bondarenko’s on-court interview after reaching the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time since Wimbledon in 2011.
What a start to the year for Monica Puig… she saved match points in her 9-7 third set win over a record-breaking, Kristyna Pliskova to reach the third round of the Australian Open for the first time in her career.
This was a fun GIF from the Petra-Dasha match… ouch Petra!
Serena’s eighth of the draw has lost all of its seeds but still looks super interesting. I’m liking how some of the younger players are having a decent tournament so far.
This made me laugh.
Pleased to share an article from one of my most loyal readers, Margaret McAleer. Margaret interviewed the chair umpire, Bjorn Wettstein, for Tennis Now during the Sydney Apia International. You can check it out HERE.
And let’s end with Poots…
Moo's Tennis Blog 
What do you think about this Shuai Zhang? She had her moment against Halep, but Cornet will be too much right?
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With such an outpouring of emotion, I would imagine it would be tough to follow that up. Cornet’s looking sharp also.
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It sucks that Kvitova had to play Daria (who I loathe) in the 2nd round, that too with no match play. Anyone would have struggled against her this early on, so its incredibly unfortunate that Petra got the short end of the stick. The main problem was her serve, which is easily transitioning from being a weapon to a liability! Heres to hoping she’ll rebound with a win at Wimby!
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On both the mens and womens sides of the draw, it’s going to be very interesting to see who can regroup and hit the same heights, and who will drop off and fall, following their respective upsets. Verdasco took care of Rafa, but can he now do the easy part and beat Dudi Sela? Knowing Verdasco, probably not! Bondarenko will beat Bencic if she plays like she did in taking down Kuznetsova, but if she starts a little slower, missing some of the impressive shots she made almost without fail in the last round, will she have enough faith in herself to dig in and deliver against Bencic? Halep to Cornet is a fairly big step down for Zhang, but like Verdasco she has that curiously difficult task of regrouping after a monumental win. There are plenty of others that I’ll be following with great interest, and I’ll be crossing my fingers that the surprise packages keep on surprising, rather than lighting striking just the once for them.
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Cornet’s getting her ass kicked.
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