Canadians Shapovalov, Fernandez advance to quarterfinals at Australian Open tuneups
Next up for Shapovalov is top seed Novak Djokovic
Canada's Denis Shapovalov advanced to the quarterfinals of the Adelaide International tennis tournament, defeating Roman Safiullin 6-4, 6-3 on Wednesday in Adelaide, Australia.
The Richmond Hill, Ont., native fired seven aces, won 84 per cent of first-serve points and converted on four of his 11 break point chances.
Meanwhile, Safiullin was good for his lone break point opportunity and had three aces to three double faults in the one-hour, 21-minute match.
Shapovalov, the seventh seed in the tournament, is now 2-0 against the Russian.
The two last played one another on Jan. 7, 2022, in the semifinals of the ATP Cup.
Shapovalov will next play top seed Novak Djokovic, who defeated Quentin Halys 7-6 (3), 7-6 (5).
WATCH | Shapovalov defeats Safiullin in Adelaide:
At the ASB Classic tournament in Auckland, Canadian Leylah Annie Fernandez advanced to the quarterfinals after a dominant victory on Thursday.
Fernandez beat Austria's Julia Grabher 6-0, 6-1, and the Canadian will now move on to face Belgium's Ysaline Bonaventure in the round of 16.
Bonaventure got there by defeating another Canadian, Rebecca Marino, on Thursday. Marino started her third-round match with a 6-3 set win over the Belgian, before falling to the same score in the next two sets to Bonaventure.
Raducanu's Aussie Open in doubt
British star Emma Raducanu is the focus of an injury scare after retiring with an apparent ankle strain in her second-round match at the ASB Classic.
The 2021 U.S. Open champion took only 22 minutes to sweep the first set 6-0 against Slovakian qualifier Viktoria Kusmova but faltered and lost the second set 7-5.
Raducanu summoned the trainer courtside to heavily strap her left ankle in a long injury break.
The 20-year-old Raducanu attempted to play on but was not able to complete the first point of the third set. She was tearful when she came to the net and acknowledged she could not continue.
Raducanu was marked as one of tennis' hottest stars when she won at Flushing Meadows. Her career since has been dogged by injuries. She retired from matches four times in 2022 and most recently has had to contend with a wrist injury.
Venus Williams blew a 5-3 last-set lead in a match which stretched over nearly seven hours because of rain in losing to Zhu Lin of China 3-6, 6-2, 7-5.
The 42-year-old Williams fought through every moment of the second-round match which began after noon and ended near 7 p.m., which began outdoors and ended indoors, and which contained 13 service breaks before finally tipping in favor of Zhu in the last few games.
Top-seeded American Coco Gauff will face Zhu in the quarterfinals after her 6-4, 6-4 win over compatriot Sofia Kenin, the 2020 Australian Open champion.
Seventh-ranked Gauff also had to play indoors and beat Kenin in just under 90 minutes, leveling their head-to-head record after Kenin beat Gauff en route to the Australian Open title.
Danka Kovinic, the seventh seed, beat former champion Lauren Davis 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 and qualifier Rebeka Masarova beat Anna Blinkova 6-1, 6-4.
