Serena Williams needed only 63 minutes to take care of Nicole Gibbs in the third round on Saturday, winning 6-1, 6-3 at the Rod Laver Arena. The second-seeded Williams did not face a break point until she was serving for the match.
It is the sixth straight fourth round appearance for Williams since not playing in 2011 due to an injury. Williams has won the Grand Slam singles event six times in her career and is looking for her record 23rd Grand Slam singles title. Williams will face Barbora Strycova in the round of 16.
The tallest man in tennis, Ivo Karlovic, could not find his way into the fourth round of play in Melbourne, bowing out in straight sets against 11th seed Belgian David Goffin, 6-3 6-2 6-4 in less than 90 minutes of play.
Standing at 2.11 meters (6 feet 11 inches), the 20th seeded Croatian managed 25 aces in the match, and averaged 199 kilometers per hour (124 miles per hour) per serve. But Karlovic was forced into 28 unforced errors and never forced a break point. Goffin will face eighth-seeded Dominic Thiem in the next round.
Further play Saturday
After Saturday's matches, the round of 16 will finally be set. 24 seed Alexander Zverev of Germany will face off against nine seed legend Rafael Nadal. This is Zverev's second Australian Open appearance, and Nadal won the hard court event in 2009. Nadal has won 14 Grand Slam singles titles, and has not won a title since the 2014 French Open.
The winner of that match faces either France's Gael Monfils or Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber. Kohlschreiber, ranked 32, has not advanced to the fourth round of the tournament since 2012, while sixth seeded Monfils is attempting to reach his second straight Australian Open quarterfinals.
Milos Raonic, the third seed from Canada, will battle against France's Gilles Simon for the chance to play Roberto Bautista Agut or David Ferrer, both hailing from Spain. At the bottom of the bracket, Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria faces France's Richard Gasaquet and Pablo Carreno Busta will go up against unseeded Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan.
In the women's tournament, unseeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia takes on 2016 Australian Open semifinalist and 2016 US Open runner up Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic. Australian Daria Gavrilova, ranked 22, will have the home crowd behind her as she faces 12th ranked Timea Bacsinszky. 2016 Australian Open semifinalist Johanna Konta faces Denmark's Caroline Wozniacki to square off against Russia's Ekaterina Makarova in the fourth round.

(DW)