Australian Open 2026 Women’s Day 6

Two-time title winner Aryna Sabalena survived a huge test from feisty Anastasia Potapov on Friday to squeeze out a narrow 7-6 (4), 7-6 (7) win into the fourth round of the Australian Open.

The world No. 1 had her hands full with her newly minted Austrian opponent, with Potapova fighting from a set and 4-0 down to come close to the upset.

The 55th-ranked challenger who changed nationality in the last few months, broke the seed  

Leading 4-1, Sabalenka lost her next three service games but survived with a love game to set up a tiebreaker in the second set.

Potapova missed her chances to take it into a deciding set, double-faulting on a third break point chance in the tiebreak and putting a ball into the net on her fourth set point.

Sabalenka earned a quick match point and converted to escape with the fraught win after two hours as she played an opponent still healing a broken finger encased in a brace.

““I was trying to figure out how to connect my body. It seemed like my brain was somewhere else, my arms were going one direction, my …… was going the other direction,” Sabalenka said.

Sabalenka’s great escape keeps alive her hopes of a possible Melbourne title hat-trick after winning the major back-to-back in 2023 and 202; she finished runner-up a year ago to Madison Keys.

“I was just trying to stay there. I was trying to fight. I’m super happy

with my mentality today on the match. That was the only thing that really

helped me to get the win.

“”It’s all about your mental strength to be there, to just try your best, to put the ball ugly, with the terrible technique,

“You have to stay there and you have to fight and you have to show your opponent that no matter how I feel, no matter what’s going on, 

“Obviously I had tactic going into the match. But when you see that things are not working, the only tactic you got is fight and try to put the ball back on that side. That was my approach today.”

Sabalenka will next take on a rigin player nearly a decade her junior when she faces Victoria Mboko in the fourth round.

The Canadian booked her spot with a 7-6 (5), 5-7, 6-3 win over Dane Clara Tauson‪.

Mboko could not be more excited about her next match in the spotlight.

“I think it’s super cool. I’ve never played a current No. 1 in the world. That’s going to be a very different experience.

“I assume we’d be playing on Rod Laver, as well. I’ve never played on a Grand Slam centre court either… a lot of firsts.

“I’m just really excited. It’s something not many people get to experience. To be doing that on Sunday is, I think, really cool. Just to show what I got.”Third seed Coco Gauff survived a scare from a compatriot, coming back after dropping the opening set to overhaul Hailey Baptiste 3-6, 6-0, 6-3.

“I just had to keep trying to be aggressive, she was dictating a lot, especially on

her forehand side,” Gauff said.

“I thought I served better in the second and third set, got more first
serves in, and overall I think just trying to put her on the back foot/”

Czech Karolina Muchov ran down Poland’s Magda Linetti with a 6-1, 6-1 rout. American teenager Iva Jovic defeated two-time Grand Slam finalist Jasmine Paolini of Italy, who was suffering with stomach problems, 6-2, 7-6 (3).

Yulia Putintseva drew the wrath of fans after beating popular Turk Zeynep Sonmez 6-3, 6-7 (3), 6-3. The Kazakh did a small victory dance after reaching the second week of the event, enraging disappointed fans that much more. 

“Today there were a lot of disrespectful moments when they were screaming between my first and second serve.. like really loud, just to make me mistake.

{At one point) a guy just started coughing just for my shot. I was like, okay,
now, I’m not going to lose. 

“I was ready to fight like until I die there. What can I do? It’s just some people have education of tennis and, unfortunately, some of them not.”