It was not quite the day that would have been hoped, but a slight loss on Day 7 of the Australian Open has not had a massive impact in the overall tournament numbers.
The second week begins in Melbourne on Sunday and it is perhaps fortunate that all of the top names are still fighting it out for the first Grand Slam of the season- both Aryna Sabalenka and Jannik Sinner have had to come through real testing matches, but the former one through her quality and the latter was perhaps fortunate that the organisers called for a break in play through the 'heat rule' when he was trailing 3-1 in the third set and barely looking capable of walking, never mind running.
The break worked for the defending Champion, but he will have some questions to answer about his body in the next twenty-four hours.
At least the conditions on Monday look much more manageable when Sinner is next out, but before that we have a full day of action at Melbourne Park with the top half of the Fourth Round draws to be completed.
Picks from the day can be read below as the quality of matches tends to pick up at this stage of any of the big tournaments to be played on the Tour.
Alexander Zverev - 1.5 sets v Francisco Cerundolo: The continued dominance of Cameron Norrie on the professional Tour has helped Alexander Zverev reach the Fourth Round yet again at the Australian Open.
However, there are much bigger ambitions within the German's camp than merely getting to the second week of a Grand Slam and Alexander Zverev's team should be happy with the progress that has been made.
It has not been a perfect run with sets dropped in each of the three matches won, but the time spent on the court has not been too taxing, while Alexander Zverev will be pleased to hear the forecast for Sunday looks much better compared with what could be the brutal heat expected on Saturday. This should help the World Number 3 continue to manage himself and make sure there is plenty left in the tank when he will be expecting to face the top two players in the world to round out this Grand Slam.
The focus cannot be looking down the line and Francisco Cerundolo has plenty of hard court pedigree to deserve to be respected.
Upsetting Andrey Rublev in the Third Round means Cerundolo is unlikely to be overlooked and the World Number 21 has also beaten Alexander Zverev three times since May 2024.
All of those wins have been on the clay courts, including twice last year, but Alexander Zverev has begun to turn the head to head around- he won a match on the hard courts in Canada when Francisco Cerundolo had to withdraw in the second set, but more importantly Zverev has beaten this opponent on another hard court in Davis Cup aciton in November.
There wasn't a lot between the players in that Davis Cup match, but Alexander Zverev had been the slightly stronger server and that is going to be the key weapon in this Fourth Round match.
Experience could also be a factor that gives Alexander Zverev the edge- while he has reached Grand Slam Finals and been a feature of the Quarter Final and beyond, Francisco Cerundolo has only reached the Fourth Round (twice) at the French Open and had only reached the Third Round on a couple of occasions in hard court Grand Slam events, albeit both times here in Melbourne.
Francisco Cerundolo came through in straight sets against Andrey Rublev in the Third Round, but it was a match played on very fine margins.
This time those slight inches could go in favour of Alexander Zverev who will still feel there is more to come from his own serve, but who also has been returning the ball effectively enough to believe in his tennis.
Over the last twelve months, Francisco Cerundolo has lost five of seven hard court matches against top 10 Ranked opponents and his numbers have taken a significant dip in those outings.
He is unlikely to be rolled over easily, but Alexander Zverev can perform as he did in the Davis Cup win over this opponent and can move through in three or, more likely, four sets to take his place in the Quarter Final for the fifth time in seven years at the Australian Open.
Daniil Medvedev-Learner Tien over 37.5 games: Twelve months ago, a young Qualifier moved into the main draw at the Australian Open and upset the then World Number 5 in the Second Round of the tournament.
Learner Tien was Ranked outside the top 100 in the 2025 Australian Open after battling through those Qualifying Rounds, but it has been a memorable twelve months for the 20 year old and more improvement is expected in the weeks and months ahead.
He only won one Grand Slam match at the French Open, Wimbleon and US Open combined, but Learner Tien clearly enjoys playing Down Under having reached the Fourth Round for a second year in a row. This time he is a Seeded player and has not had to win six matches to make the second week and that should mean Learner Tien has plenty in the tank for this big Fourth Round match.
Five sets were needed to avoid another early Grand Slam exit, but the American has won the last two matches with a single set dropped and, importantly, has only spent a few minutes over four hours on the court.
At his age, Learner Tien will have no excuses for being fatigued and the conditions on Sunday look much more comfortable compared with the day before.
On the other side of the court, Daniil Medvedev just about remained unbeaten in 2026 by coming from two sets down to win his Third Round match, although the World Number 12 needed almost four hours before finally getting past Fabian Marozsan.
He will be well aware of the challenge coming up having faced Learner Tien three times in 2025- all on the hard courts- and all of those matches entering a final set decider. The Second Round match between them in Melbourne lasted five sets, while the match in Beijing ended in a final set withdrawal for Medvedev.
However, the most recent match was played at the Shanghai Masters and Daniil Medvedev was finally able to edge past this opponent in a 7-6, 6-7, 6-4 victory.
There has been so little between the players in the three meetings and it would be a surprise if this match was decided in straight sets either way.
Nothing has come easy when Tien and Medvedev have met one another and both have struggled to consistently hold serve, which suggests this could be another match with several swings in momentum.
Both have held 66% of service games played against the other and Learner Tien has won 57% of service points played, while Daniil Medvedev is at 59%.
You have to give the narrowest of edges to Daniil Medvedev, even after the gruelling Third Round win, but this is likely to be a Fourth Round match that goes pretty long and that could see the players end up combining to surpass the total set.
Alexander Bublik-Alex De Minaur over 38.5 games: He has never hidden his disdain for playing on the hard courts, but something has clicked for Alexander Bublik.
Having only previously been beyond the Second Round once in eleven hard court Grand Slam tournaments played, Alexander Bublik reached the Fourth Round at the US Open in 2025. This surprised himself, but Bublik has had a very strong twelve months on the Tour and entered the tournament in Melbourne as the World Number 10, while keeping expectations at a minimum.
He won a title in the warm up to the Australian Open, but Alexander Bublik had never been beyond the Second Round here and had lost three straight First Round matches at this opening Grand Slam of the year.
Out of all of the Grand Slams played, Alexander Bublik particularly disliked the Australian Open, but he is feeling better about things. There were even some positive words said about the event, but he may not be so happy when having to deal with an opponent and the crowd as expected to be the case in this Fourth Round match.
Alexander Bublik has not dropped a set at the tournament and that is largely down to an improved serve that has produced holds in 93% of service games played. He has been able to back that up with some aggressive returning and Bublik looks a dangerous test for home favourite Alex De Minaur.
The World Number 6 has only dropped a single set at the tournament as he looks to at least match the Quarter Final run from 2025 and Alex De Minaur has impressed with the dominant wins that have been put on the board.
Like his opponent in the Fourth Round, Alex De Minaur has held in 93% of service games played at the tournament and has only faced 9 Break Points in the event.
However, the real difference has been the way in which the Australian has returned serve, which has always been a strength, and he has broken in 40% of return games played. He will be the first to admit that he has not faced a server as strong as Alexander Bublik, but Alex De Minaur has to be confident he can at least get himself into rallies and wear down this opponent.
That looked to be the case when Alex De Minaur led Alexander Bublik 2-0 in sets at the French Open, but the latter dug in and upset the Australian in five sets.
They met again at the Paris Masters at the end of the 2025 season and that was another huge battle, which was eventually won by Alexander Bublik in three sets. Both players won at least 67% of points behind serve in that match on an indoor hard court and the conditions at Melbourne Park have been pretty quick, which makes the serve hugely important to both players.
Overall the edge has to be with the home favourite who can use the crowd to keep him going when things get tough.
Alex De Minaur's return edge could also play out over the best of five set format, but you would expect both to win a set and the serving power of the two players could see this total games number surpassed.
There is a fragility around Alexander Bublik, which could show up at any time, so a fast start will be needed to just give himself confidence in what is going to be a tough environment. As long as he can serve as well as he has this month, Bublik can make this a tough test for Alex De Minaur and both players can put on a very strong match.
Carlos Alcaraz - 6.5 games v Tommy Paul: The World Number 1 clearly admires Tommy Paul and admitted that he is expecting a very tough battle against this opponent in the Fourth Round at the Australian Open.
They have matched up well with one another, but Carlos Alcaraz may be playing with a bit more confidence in his physicality compared with Paul, who has only recently stated that his foot is feeling much more like it did when fully healthy.
Tommy Paul is a very good hard court player and he has actually beaten Carlos Alcaraz twice in four meetings on the surface.
The most recent hard court match was at the Cincinnati Masters in August 2023 and Tommy Paul was able to take a set from Alcaraz on that day too, although this time the Spaniard had enough to win the decider in that tournament.
The numbers have been very similar in the hard court meetings between the players and that makes this a potentially awkward match for the top Seed.
However, Carlos Alcaraz has beaten Tommy Paul at Grand Slam events at Wimbledon and the French Open with the last of those being played several months ago in Paris. It is another surface on which Paul has played well, but those two Grand Slam defeats have seen the American struggle to stay with Carlos Alcaraz in the best of five set format and something similar may happen on Day 8 of this tournament.
Both players will recognise that this is the toughest obstacle they have faced at the Australian Open by some distance, but the edge remains with Carlos Alcaraz.
This will not be an easy match to win, but Carlos Alcaraz can wear down Tommy Paul and it does feel like the World Number 1 will be able to extract a little more out of his serve to earn the edges needed.
Covering is not goign to be easy either, but Carlos Alcaraz has managed to do that in the two Grand Slam wins over this opponent and may just be able to pull away in the latter stages of the contest.
Mirra Andreeva - 2.5 games v Elina Svitolina: There is no doubt that the Ukrainian players on the Tour are finding it easy to be motivated to take on Russian and Belarusian opponents- some would like to separate politics and sports, but it is not always possible and you can see that extra intensity in the matches involving players representing those nations.
A veteran like Elina Svitolina has made her feelings clear about the war in Eastern Europe and she has a very strong record against Russian players since returning to the Tour and being very vocal about events affecting her homeland.
It was on display in the Third Round as Svitolina moved past Diana Shnaider in straight sets, but beating this special teenage talent is going to need more than the heart.
Mirra Andreeva is still only 18 years old, but she is a top 10 Ranked player and it really does feel like it is only a matter of time before she wins a Grand Slam title. That could open the door for multiple more successes and Andreeva has looked pretty comfortable in the conditions in Melbourne.
Even a hostile crowd was not able to put her off her game in the win over Maria Sakkari, while Mirra Andreeva beat Elina Svitolina in straight sets in Indian Wells last year.
On that day she was clearly the superior server as the younger player held Elina Svitolina to just 23% return points won.
The World Number 12 has yet to drop a set in her run to the Fourth Round, but Elina Svitolina did not have things all of her own way in the Third Round and this is a considerable leap in level of opponent too.
Elina Svitolina is experienced and a player that will not give up, but she is 2-3 when facing top 10 Ranked players on the hard courts over the last twelve months.
If she serves well, she will have a chance of the upset, but it feels like Mirra Andreeva is playing at a high enough level to eventually break down this opponent much like she did on the North American hard courts in 2025 and she can reach her first Quarter Final at the Australian Open.
Coco Gauff - 3.5 games v Karolina Muchova: It may 'only' be the Fourth Round at the Australian Open, but this is a contest between two players who will have genuine aspirations of winning the first Major of the 2026 season.
Both Coco Gauff and Karolina Muchova are very comfortable on the hard courts and have enjoyed a solid month of tennis, while they have each dropped just a single set in three matches at the Australian Open.
Out of the two players, you would have to say that Coco Gauff has been a little more convincing than the 29 year old opponent she is facing, but there will be a lot of respect for the quality of tennis that Karolina Muchova can produce.
One of the remaining issues for Coco Gauff is the problems with the serve that continues to see her throw far too many Double Faults, and that is a hugely contributory factor in the poor second serve percentage of points won. It does put some pressure on the American to make sure she is getting plenty of first serves in play, but there is a belief that Gauff can actually protect the second serve pretty well too when she is not gift-wrapping free points.
The World Number 3 continues to be a very effective return player on the surface as well and that is where Coco Gauff may be able to work through some problems and progress past Karolina Muchova.
The latter is the World Number 19 and just crushed Magda Linette for the loss of just two games in the Third Round, but Karolina Muchova has not been as convincing as Gauff in the opening two wins.
Karolina Muchova should have the edge when it comes to the serving consistency, but this has not been a very good match up for her in the past.
All four professional matches between the players have been won by Coco Gauff and all of those have been on the hard courts- the last meeting came a little over twelve months ago in the United Cup building up to the 2025 Australian Open, but that was yet another one-sided win for the younger player.
They met in the US Open Semi Final in 2023 and that ended in a straight sets win for Coco Gauff, albeit in two tight sets- the other three wins have also been in straight sets, but in much more routine fashion, and this looks like a match up that works for Gauff as she can match the athleticism of Karolina Muchova.
It is Coco Gauff who tends to get a bit more out of the first serve when these two have faced off and that could be the key to this Fourth Round match.
Covering is not going to be easy against a player of Karolina Muchova's quality, but if Coco Gauff can stick around the 64% mark of first serves in play, she should have enough to contain the threats and ultimately find the breaks needed to make relatively serene progress into the Quarter Final.
MY PICKS: Alexander Zverev - 1.5 Sets @ 1.72 Bet Fred (2 Units)
Daniil Medvedev-Learner Tien Over 37.5 Games @ 1.80 William Hill (2 Units)
Alexander Bublik-Alex De Minaur Over 38.5 Games @ 1.80 William Hill (2 Units)
Carlos Alcaraz - 6.5 Games @ 1.83 Bet365 (2 Units)
Mirra Andreeva - 2.5 Games @ 1.80 Bet365 (2 Units)
Coco Gauff - 3.5 Games @ 1.91 Coral (2 Units)
Australian Open Update: 27-13, + 16.74 Units (82 Units Staked, + 20.41% Yield)
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