Navarro fends off Jabeur to reach round four at Australian Open

American Emma Navarro, the No 8 seed, reached the last 16 of a Grand Slam event for the fourth time in a row – but first time in Melbourne – as she edged out Tunisian Ons Jabeur 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 at the Australian Open on Saturday.

Navarro, ranked No 8, will face the winner of the match between Kazakh Yulia Putintseva, the No 24 seed, and Russian Daria Kasatkina, the No 9 seed, next.

Jabeur led by a break at 2-1 in the final set but Navarro, a semi-finalist at the US Open, battled back and finally clinched victory after just over two hours.

“I started well (she led 5-0) but then she played a great four games and a really good second set,” Navarro said. “I just tried to keep working, keep doing my thing and hoping that I would have my chance.

“She’s tough. She has that slice, the short one and the deep one and is really hard to play.”

The American edged out Peyton Stearns (6-7 (5), 7-6 (5), 7-5) and Chinese Xiyu Wang (6-3, 3-6, 6-4) ahead of her victory.

In the previous rounds, Jabeur, ranked No 39, won against Ukrainian Anhelina Kalinina (6-3, 6-3) and Colombian Camila Osorio (7-5, 6-3).

Melbourne (Grand Slam), other third-round results (Melbourne Park, hard, USD 60.627.573, most recent results first):

• Madison Keys vs. Danielle Collins
• Elina Svitolina vs. Jasmine Paolini
• Beatriz Haddad Maia vs. Veronika Kudermetova
• Elena Rybakina vs. Dayana Yastremska
• Yulia Putintseva vs. Daria Kasatkina: saturday
• Eva Lys vs. Jaqueline Cristian: saturday
• Iga Swiatek (2) beat Emma Raducanu: 6-1, 6-0
• Olga Danilovic beat Jessica Pegula (7): 7-6 (3), 6-1
• Coco Gauff (3) beat Leylah Fernandez (30): 6-4, 6-2
• Belinda Bencic beat Naomi Osaka: 7-6 (3) ret.
• Mirra Andreeva (14) beat Magdalena Frech (23): 6-2, 1-6, 6-2
• Paula Badosa (11) beat Marta Kostyuk (17): 6-4, 4-6, 6-3
• Aryna Sabalenka (1) beat Clara Tauson: 7-6 (5), 6-4
• Donna Vekic (18) beat Diana Shnaider (12): 7-6 (4), 6-7 (3), 7-5
• Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (27) beat Laura Siegemund: 6-1, 6-2