MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Highlights of day six of the Australian Open tennis championships at Melbourne Park on Saturday. Times local (GMT +11):
1815 MERTENS MARCHES PAST BENCIC
Belgium's Elise Mertens, who reached the semi-finals at Melbourne Park three years ago, fired 22 winners in a 6-2 6-1 win over Switzerland's Belinda Bencic.
1800 RUBLEV RACES INTO FOURTH ROUND
Russia's seventh seed Andrey Rublev extended his winning streak to seven matches in 2021 with a 7-5 6-2 6-3 win over Spanish veteran Feliciano Lopez.
1700 TSITSIPAS ADVANCES WITH EASY WIN
Fifth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas needed just over 1-1/2 hours to see off Sweden's Mikael Ymer 6-4 6-1 6-1.
1635 MEDVEDEV SURVIVES KRAJINOVIC SCARE
Fourth seed Daniil Medvedev came through in five sets for the first time in his career, defeating Serbia's Filip Krajinovic 6-3 6-3 4-6 3-6 6-0 in just over three hours at Rod Laver Arena.
1535 VEKIC BATTLES PAST KANEPI
Croatia's 28th seed Donna Vekic saved a match point as she rallied from a set down to beat Estonian Kaia Kanepi 5-7 7-6(2) 6-4.
1520 BRADY ROLLS INTO LAST 16
American Jennifer Brady, seeded 22nd, held off a spirited challenge from Slovenian qualifier Kaja Juvan in the second set before claiming a 6-1 6-3 victory.
1330 PEGULA POWERS INTO FOURTH ROUND
American Jessica Pegula reached the fourth round in a Grand Slam for the first time in her career with a 6-2 6-1 victory over France's Kristina Mladenovic.
1315 PLISKOVA KNOCKED OUT
Sixth seed Karolina Pliskova's frustration boiled over as she smashed two rackets during a 7-5 7-5 defeat by fellow Czech Karolina Muchova.
Pliskova was also docked a point for racket abuse in the tunnel between the two sets.
1232 FIFTH SEED SVITOLINA INTO FOURTH ROUND
Fifth seed Elina Svitolina survived an early wobble to cruise into the fourth round with a 6-4 6-0 victory over Kazakh Yulia Putintseva on Margaret Court Arena.
1112 PLAY UNDERWAY AT EMPTY STADIUMS
Play got underway as scheduled under cloudy skies on six courts on the first Saturday of the championships, normally one of the best attended of the fortnight.
No fans will be allowed for the next five days after the Victoria government ordered a snap lockdown to try and contain an outbreak of the COVID-19 variant associated with Britain.
The state of Victoria announced one new locally-transmitted case of COVID-19 on Saturday.