MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — The Latest on the Australian Open (all times local):
3:35 p.m.
Serena Williams has lost to China’s Wang Qiang in the third round of the Australian Open.
The seven-time Australian Open champion was down a set and a break and Wang was serving for victory in the second set before Williams broke back and leveled the match after dominating the tiebreaker.
Williams was serving to stay in the match when Wang broke her to clinch a 6-4, 6-7 (2), 7-5 victory.
In their only previous meeting, Williams beat Wang 6-1, 6-0 in 44 minutes at last year’s U.S. Open quarterfinals.
Williams’s bid for a her 24th Grand Slam title to equal Margaret Court’s all-time record will have to wait. She has lost the Wimbledon and U.S. Open finals in 2018 and ‘19 and hasn’t added to her collection of majors since her title at Melbourne Park in 2017.
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3 p.m.
Caroline Wozniacki’s farewell tour at the Australian Open is over. The 2018 champion lost her third-round match 7-5, 3-6, 7-5 to Ons Jabeur at Melbourne Arena.
Wozniacki said late last year that she would retire from the game after the Australian Open in order to spend more time with her family and because she has been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in 2018.
She sat in her court-side chair wiping tears from her eyes before doing an on-court television interview.
“I think it was only fitting that my last match ended with a forehand error,” the former No. 1-ranked Wozniacki told the crowd, smiling through the tears.
Jabeur is into the fourth round for the first time a major. She will play either 23-time major winner Serena Williams or Wang Qiang of China.
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2:45 p.m.
Serena Williams has rallied from a set and a break down to level her third-round match at the Australian Open. Wang Qiang won the first set 6-4 and had a chance to serve for the match at 5-4 in the second.
But the 23-time Grand Slam singles champion broke Qiang’s get back on serve. And when the set went to a tiebreaker, Williams won it easily 7-6 (2).
Williams is attempting to win her 24th Grand Slam title to equal Margaret Court’s all-time record. Two weeks ago she won her first WTA title since 2017.
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12:35 p.m.
The top-ranked women’s player in the world is also the first one into the fourth round at the Australian Open.
French Open champion and local hope Ash Barty beat 29th-seeded Elena Rybakina 6-3, 6- 2 in the opening match at Rod Laver Arena.
Barty will next play either Alison Riske or Julia Goerges.
After a disruptive day weather-wise on Thursday, mostly sunny skies returned to Melbourne Park on Day 5.
Other top players in action later are Serena Williams, defending champions Novak Djokovic and Naomi Osaka and 20-time Grand Slam singles winner Roger Federer.
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