3 minute read

After knocking out defending Australian Open champion Caroline Wozniacki, Maria Sharapova has locked sights on home hope Ashleigh Barty in the fourth round.

Maria Sharapova is targeting home hope Ashleigh Barty after ending Caroline Wozniacki's Australian Open title defence in brutal fashion.

The resurgent former champion will meet Barty in a fourth-round blockbuster on Sunday having vanquished the Dane 6-4 4-6 6-3 in two hours and 24 minutes.

"Her story is phenomenal. She loves playing here and did extremely well in Sydney last week," the 2008 winner said of Barty, who got past rising Greek Maria Sakkari 7-5 6-1 earlier on Friday.

In an ominous third-round display, Sharapova smacked, 37 winners to Wozniacki's 10 - 24 coming off her forehand wing.

The 31-year-old is playing her 15th Open and hopes to draw on that experience against the young Aussie, who'll be backed by raucous home fans.

"I know she took a little break from the game and came back and resurged," Sharapova said after Barty took an 18th-month hiatus from tennis in 2014-15 after falling out of love with the sport.

"It's going to be a tough crowd but I go out here to perform."

Sharapova, who was hit with a two-year doping ban - later reduced to 15 months - for testing positive to banned substance meldonium at the 2016 Australian Open, hasn't won a major since her 2014 triumph at the French Open.

Seventeen-year-old Amanda Anisimova, meanwhile, became the youngest American to reach the fourth round of a major since Serena Williams at Roland Garros in 1998.

Anisimova, the youngest player left in the women's draw, blew highly-rated Belarusian 11th seed Aryna Sabalenka off the court 6-3 6-2 in a little over an hour.

Sabalenka is the second seeded scalp in two matches for the 87th-ranked Anisimova, who swatted aside 24th seed Lesia Tsurenko in the second round.

Scrambling from side to side on the baseline, Anisimova produced one of the shots of the first week, with a loopy slice forehand at full stretch getting past Sabalenka and landing in the corner.

Anisimova could meet her idol Sharapova in the final eight, if the Russian topples Barty and she wins her next match against No.8 seed Petra Kvitova, who overcame Switzerland's Belinda Bencic in straight sets.

"Maria is someone I look up to so much. She's an amazing athlete," Anisimova said.

Sabalenka was the second Belarusian to take a third-round tumble on Friday, with Aliaksandra Sasnovich losing 6-0 6-3 to Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in exactly an hour.

Fifth seed Sloane Stephens got past Croatian Petra Martic in two tight sets 7-6 (8-6) 7-6 (7-5).