Four-time champion Roger Federer beat the tenth-seed Tomas Berdych in their third round tie in the Australian Open. The former world number one, seeded a lowly 17th this tournament, dispatched the Czech Berdych 6-2,6-4,6-4 in straight sets.
The Swiss maestro is making a comeback through this tournament after six-months knee injury break. Federer will face the fifth-seed Japan’s Kei Nishikori in his next round.
Murray going strong, makes it to round four
Earlier in the day, world number 1 Andy Murray won his third round tie against American Sam Querrey in straight sets 6-4,6-2,6-4 and is scheduled to face German Mischa Zverev in the next round. Fourth-seed Stanislas Wawrinka also progressed to the fourth round after beating Serbia’s Viktor Troicki 3-6,6-2,6-2,7-6(9-7). He next faces Italian Andreas Seppi.
Second-seed Novak Djokovic was knocked out in the third round by Denis Istomin on Thursday.
Meanwhile in the women’s singles, top-seed Angelique Kerber won her third round match in straight sets. She breezed past Czech Kristyna Pliskova 6-0,6-4 in straight sets and is scheduled to play Coco Vandeweghe in fourth round. Former world no.1, the unseeded Jelena Jankovic struggled hard but failed to go past the third round. She was beaten by the eight-seed Russian, Svetlana Kuznetsova in a hard fought battle 4-6,7-5,7-9. Garbine Muguruza and Venus Williams also won their respective round three matches.
The top seeded men players in the fray on Saturday are Rafael Nadal, Gael Monfils, Dominic Thiem and Milos Raonic. In the women’s singles players, Serena Williams, Johanna Konta, Dominika Cibulkova and Karolina Pliskova have their respective third round matches on Saturday.
