Dangerous Svitolina gallops into quarter-finals

MELBOURNE: Elina Svitolina galloped into the last eight of the Australian Open with a late night 6-3, 6-0 demolition of Czech qualifier Denisa Allertova.

The in-form Ukrainian sprinted through the match that did not start until 23:56 pm Sunday at Melbourne Park in 57 minutes.

The world number four took her winning streak at the start of 2018 to nine matches after being crowned the Brisbane International champion earlier this month.

“Winning Brisbane gave me a lot of confidence and I´m very pleased with my performances here so far,” said Svitolina, who had never gone beyond the third round in Melbourne in five previous attempts. She was happy to get off court in a hurry after the late start and will face unseeded Belgian Elise Mertens for a place in the semi-finals. “I think so,” she replied when asked if it was the latest she had ever been on court. Mertens, in her first-ever Grand Slam quarter-final, is also on a nine-match win streak having won the Hobart warm-up event. “I know she had a great start to the year and she´s playing great tennis so it is going to be extremely tough,” said Svitolina.