Andy Murray’s dream run is finished

Andy Murray’s superb run on the 2023 Australian Open is finished.

The sleep-deprived Murray — who 28 hours earlier received a 5-hour, 45-minute, five-set marathon over Thanasi Kokkinakis that ended after 4 a.m. native time in Melbourne — ran out of miracles within the third spherical in opposition to Roberto Bautista Agut on Saturday.

The 35-year-old Murray put up a struggle in a 6-1, 6-7 (7), 6-3, 6-4 loss that lasted 3 hours and 29 minutes — the shortest match for Murray throughout this 12 months’s Australian Open. Murray defeated Matteo Berrettini within the first spherical in a match that lasted shut to 5 hours.

“It has been troublesome because the Kokkinakis match,” Murray mentioned. “I had blisters that wanted to be drained and did not sleep sufficient, so it wasn’t excellent.”

Regardless of the not excellent situations, Murray fought valiantly in opposition to the Twenty fourth-seeded Bautista Agut in a rematch of their five-set 2019 Australian Open thriller. However as soon as once more, Bautista Agut proved to be too powerful for Murray in advancing to the fourth spherical.

“Enjoying Andy at a Grand Slam may be very powerful,” Bautista Agut mentioned after the match. “He is aware of the sport very nicely. He is aware of very nicely how one can play a Grand Slam match. I am very proud of how I held the nerves and stress. I am very proud of the win.

“There was loads of love for Andy,” Bautista Agut joked as the gang cheered. “Perhaps within the subsequent spherical, a bit of extra for me?”

Murray’s spotlight Saturday got here within the second set. Trailing 4-2, Murray fought again to drive a tiebreaker. Trailing 6-4 within the tiebreaker, Murray saved two set factors and went on to win the tiebreak 9-7.

However Bautista Agut rebounded within the third, breaking Murray at 4-3 on his approach to successful the set 6-3.

Then he completed off Murray within the fourth set to arrange a fourth-round matchup with Tommy Paul.

Regardless of the loss, Murray’s run breeds pleasure for his upcoming look within the French Open.

“You by no means know when the top goes to be,” Murray mentioned. “However I want to exit enjoying tennis like this the place I am competing with one of the best gamers on the earth on the largest occasions. …

“I can have a deeper run than the third spherical of a slam, there isn’t any query about that.”

Djokovic cruises into fourth spherical

9-time Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic, the No. 4 seed, defeated Twenty seventh-seeded Grigor Dimitrov in straight units, 7-6(7), 6-3, 6-4, however it wasn’t straightforward.

“I believed double-break within the third set was going to be sufficient for me, however he was locked in from that second and as much as the final shot I didn’t know if I used to be going to prevail,” Djokovic mentioned. “It was an unimaginable battle, three units over three hours.”

Djokovic, who subsequent faces Alex de Minaur, superior to fourth spherical of the Australian Open for the fifteenth time in his profession.

How did the People do?

• American Ben Shelton superior to the fourth spherical with a 6-3, 7-6(4), 6-4 victory over Alexei Popyrin. Shelton faces J.J. Wolf subsequent in a shocking fourth-round match. Each gamers reached the spherical of 16 of their Australian Open debuts. Solely three different gamers whole have achieved that feat previously 10 years. “For the primary 12 or 13 years of my life I swore that I might by no means play tennis,” Shelton mentioned. “I type of fell in love with the game, and right here we’re. Hopefully, I could make a profession out of it.”

• No. 7 Coco Gauff will face No. 17 seed Jeļena Ostapenko who defeated Kateryna Balndl 6-3, 6-0.

• Gauff and third-seeded American Jessica Pegula are doubles No. 2 seeds and reached the third spherical by defeating Uchijima/Wang 7-5 6-1. Pegula will face No. 20 Barbora Krejčíková early Sunday.

Different notable upsets

• High-ranked Iga Swiatek cruised to a 6-0, 6-1 victory over Cristina Bucsa to arrange a fourth-round showdown with Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina.

• Fourth-seeded Caroline Garcia superior to the fourth spherical right here for the primary time since 2018 with a 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory over Laura Siegemund.

• Belinda Bencic superior to the fourth spherical for the primary time in seven years with a 6-2, 7-5 victory over Camila Giorgi.

• Magda Linette upset No. 19 Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-3, 6-4 to advance to the fourth spherical of a Grand Slam for the primary time.

What to look at

Males’s

• No. 10 Hubert Hurkacz vs. No. 29 Sebastian Korda, 9:45 p.m. ET

• No. 18 Karen Khachanov vs. No. 31 Yoshihito Nishioka, 10:30 p.m. ET

• No. 6 Felix Auger Aliassime vs. Jiri Lehecka, 11:30 p.m. ET

• No. 3 Stefanos Tsitsipas vs. Jannik Sinner, 3 a.m. ET Sunday

• Ben Shelton vs. J.J. Wolf, Sunday

• No. 24 Roberto Bautista Agut vs. Tommy Paul, Sunday

• No. 22 Alex de Minaur vs. No. 4 Novak Djokovic, Sunday

• No. 5 Andrey Rublev vs. No. 9 Holger Rune, Sunday

Girls’s

• No. 1 Iga Świątek vs. No. 22 Elena Rybakina, 8:30 p.m. ET

• No. 7 Coco Gauff vs. No. 17 Jeļena Ostapenko, 9 p.m. ET

• No. 3 Jessica Pegula vs. No. 20 Barbora Krejčíková, 1 a.m. ET Sunday

• No. 24 Victoria Azarenka vs. Zhu Lin, Sunday

• No. 30 Karolína Plíšková vs. No. 23 Zhang Shuai, Sunday