MELBOURNE, Australia — Novak Djokovic gave Nicolas Mahut one lousy birthday present. Djokovic routed the Frenchman on his 30th birthday, winning 6-0, 6-1, 6-1 today to advance to the fourth round of the Australian Open.
Top-seeded Djokovic needed only 1 hour, 14 minutes to move past Mahut, who lost the longest match in Grand Slam history at 11 hours, 5 minutes against John Isner at Wimbledon in 2010.
“I wish him happy birthday and hopefully tonight he can enjoy it,” Djokovic said.
The defending champion is aiming to become the fifth man in the Open era to win three straight Grand Slam titles. He will play Milos Raonic or Lleyton Hewitt in the fourth round.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, whom Djokovic beat at Melbourne Park for his first Grand Slam title in 2008, also hardly broke a sweat in beating Frederico Gil of Portugal 6-2, 6-2, 6-2.
On the women’s side, two Wimbledon winners — Petra Kvitova and Maria Sharapova — advanced, but two top-10 players were eliminated.
Seventh-seeded Vera Zvonareva lost 7-6 (7), 6-1 to fellow Russian Ekaterina Makerova. No. 9 Marion Bartoli fell 6-3, 6-3 against Zheng Jie, a former Australian Open semifinalist.
Sharapova was tested for the first time, but still emerged with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Germany’s Angelique Kerber.
The 2008 champion has lost five games in reaching the fourth round. She won her first two matches 6-0, 6-1 despite not playing any warm-up tournaments because of an ankle injury.
The scoreline today made it look easy enough for Sharapova, but she was pushed during a 56-minute second set, with many games going to deuce.
After clinching the victory with a forehand winner, Sharapova showed her relief by clenching her fist and screeching “Come on.”
“She certainly stepped up in the second set,” Sharapova said. “She reached the semifinals at the U.S. Open last year so she’s been on the big stage before and I knew she could produce some really good tennis.”
Sharapova and Kvitova have a chance of claiming the No. 1 ranking at the end of the tournament. They could play each other in the semifinals, although Kvitova insisted she hasn’t looked that far ahead.
“I don’t know who lost and who win,” the Wimbledon champion said. “No, really, for me doesn’t care.”
Kvitova reached the round of 16 when Maria Kirilenko retired with a left thigh injury while trailing 6-0, 1-0 after 38 minutes of their third-round match.
Kvitova next faces Ana Ivanovic, who beat unseeded American Vania King 6-3, 6-4 to reach the fourth round for the first time since she reached the final here in 2008. That was the same year the 24-year-old Serb won the French Open for her only Grand Slam title, and also claimed the top ranking.
King’s loss left Serena Williams as the only American player left in the singles draws after John Isner’s loss to Feliciano Lopez in five sets Friday ended any hope of a men’s champion from the United States.
“It’s very ugly, to be honest, to have no one in the round of 16,” Isner said. “We’ve got to try to rectify that next time the big tournaments roll around.
“It’s very disappointing. That’s not a good effort from the Americans in this tournament. I knew going in today I was the last one left and I wanted to keep on going, but just didn’t happen.”
Five-time champion Williams, hoping to win her 17th straight match at Melbourne Park, was scheduled to play Greta Arn of Hungary today.
