US teen steamrolls to Open showdown with Sabalenka

Sabalenka earlier outplayed another teenager, Canada's Victoria Mboko, to keep her plans of regaining her Australian Open crown on track.

The two-time champion was relieved to survive a second-set wobble and closed out the contest 6-1 7-6 (7-1) to surge into her 13th consecutive grand slam quarter-final.

The pair were later joined in the last eight by Coco Gauff, with the American third seed overcoming Czech Karolina Muchova 6-1 3-6 6-3.

Gauff will face 12th seed Elina Svitolina in the quarter-finals after the experienced Ukrainian beat Russian teen sensation Mirra Andreeva 6-2 6-4.

While the pre-tournament buzz was around Mboko, Andreeva and another seeded teenager in Australia's top ranked Maya Joint, world No.27 Jovic was the one to make the biggest mark at Melbourne Park.

Jovic was down two break points on her opening serve but regrouped to hold and then never looked back, winning 10 consecutive games before Putintseva got on the board.

The 18-year-old set up the win on the back of a lethal service game, finding the mark with a stunning 71 per cent of first serves, and then belted 17 winners to her opponent's four.

"Obviously the scoreline is favourable, but it doesn't matter how you get it done, I just wanted to get it done," Jovic said.

"I felt like if I let her come back a little bit, it would become a dogfight, so I just tried to keep it as far away as possible and I'm just so happy to be in the quarter-finals."

Born in California to Serbian parents, Jovic and her family met up with Djokovic at Melbourne Park this week with the 10-time champion saying the youngster has "all the tools to be a future champion, a future No.1".

Asked about the challenge of taking on the game's best, Jovic said she relished it.

"I'm just going to try to keep taking care of my side of the net," said the 2024 junior Australian Open champion.

"Obviously she's (Sabalenka) number one for a reason and had so much success at this tournament, but that's what I want - I said it last year that I hoped to be able to play her this year because you definitely want to play the best and see how it goes so I'm just really excited."

Sabalenka was first up on Rod Laver Arena and fans barely had time to take their seats before she steamed through the opening set of the fourth-round clash in 31 minutes.

Building a reputation as a three-set specialist, Mboko worked her way into the match in the second set and from 4-1 down levelled at 5-5 with Sabalenka blowing three match points.

But the big-serving Belarusian regained her focus to win an incredible 20th successive tie-break at grand slam level to seal the victory in 86 minutes.

The 27-year-old is looking to make amends for her three-set loss in last year's final against Madison Keys, which halted her run of Australian Open crowns at two.

"What an incredible player for such a young age," Sabalenka said.

"She played incredible tennis. She pushed me so much, and happy to be through."

There was plenty of hype around world No.8 Andreeva but but Svitolina had the Rod Laver Arena crowd entranced when she reeled off the first set in 36 minutes.

The 31-year-old fought back from 2-0 down in the second set then broke Andreeva with a wonderful forehand winner to seal victory.

Andreeva was booed as she left the court without first heading to the net - with the crowd seemingly unaware that Svitolina does not shake hands with Russian and Belarusian players amid the war in Ukraine.

It is Svitolina's 14th career grand slam quarter final and fourth in Melbourne.

"It's unbelievable, very very pleased with the performance tonight and had to put up the fight and fight until the very last point," Svitolina said.

Svitolina has spoken about how her husband, fellow player Gael Monfils, has encouraged her to be more "chill".

"I was not chill tonight so I wouldn't be happy," she joked.

"But I think he might be happy with my win today."