Sabalenka is into the fourth round at the Australian Open, Naomi Osaka is out with injury

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Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus celebrates after defeating Clara Tauson of Denmark in their third round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)

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Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus plays a backhand return to Clara Tauson of Denmark during their third round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)

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Naomi Osaka of Japan leaves the court after retiring from her third round match against Belinda Bencic of Switzerland at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

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Naomi Osaka of Japan receives treatment from a trainer during her third round match against Belinda Bencic of Switzerland at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

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Aryna Sabalenka, right, of Belarus is congratulated by Clara Tauson of Denmark following their third round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)

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Clara Tauson of Denmark plays a backhand return to Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus during their third round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)

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Laura Siegemund of Germany plays a backhand return to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia during their third round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

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Diana Shnaider of Russia plays a backhand return to Donna Vekic of Croatia during their third round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

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Belinda Bencic of Switzerland signs autographs following her third round match against Naomi Osaka of Japan at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

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Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia reacts after winning the first set against Laura Siegemund of Germany during their third round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

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Donna Vekic of Croatia reacts after defeating Diana Shnaider of Russia in their third round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

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Diana Shnaider of Russia plays a forehand return to Donna Vekic of Croatia during their third round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

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Diana Shnaider, right, of Russia congratulates Donna Vekic of Croatia following their third round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

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Paula Badosa of Spain signs autographs after defeating Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine in their third round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

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Paula Badosa of Spain celebrates after defeating Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine in their third round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

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Paula Badosa of Spain autographs the screen on a television camera after defeating Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine in their third round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

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Tommy Paul of the U.S. celebrates after defeating Roberto Carballes Baena of Spain in their third round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

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Tommy Paul, right, of the U.S. is congratulated by Roberto Carballes Baena of Spain following their third round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

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MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Two-time defending Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka extended a few impressive streaks on Friday while becoming one of the first players to advance to the fourth round of the year’s opening Grand Slam tournament.

Later Friday, an apparent abdominal injury that forced Naomi Osaka to retire with a one-set lead over Clara Tauson less than two weeks ago in Auckland, New Zealand struck again Friday, forcing the four-time major champion to cut a promising Australian Open short.

Appearing with discomfort late in the first set of her third-round match with Belinda Bencic, most visibly on a reduced service motion, Osaka stopped the match after dropping an opening tiebreaker, 7-6 (3).

“At this moment, I just feel for Naomi. I saw her struggling a little bit in the end of the set,” Bencic said in her on-court interview. “Obviously it’s not the way you would like that match to end.”

In a tougher-than-expected match, Sabalenka beat Tauson 7-6 (5), 6-4 in a poor early serving display by both players to open the sixth day of play on Rod Laver Arena. It was Sabalenka’s eighth match victory in a row to start the season after winning the Brisbane International 10 days ago, and her 17th win in a row at Melbourne Park.

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As well, it’s been nearly three years — the 2022 French Open — that the top-ranked Sabalenka has failed to advance past the third round of any Grand Slam tournament in which she played.

Both players lost their first three service games, and it became seven service breaks in a row when Sabalenka lost her fourth service game at love. After Tauson fired an unreturnable backhand cross-court to set up break point, Sabalenka managed a wry smile.

Tauson finally held a service game to lead 5-3 and Sabalenka also won her service game to stay in the first set. But no surprise — the Danish player lost her service while serving for the first set to leave it at 5-5, eventually going to a tiebreaker which Sabalenka won despite leading 4-1, taking the opening set in 63 minutes.

“The conditions are really tough to serve, heavy conditions,” Sabalenka said. “It was really important to get all of those breaks back. It could have gone either way.”

In mostly routine men’s play, second-seeded Alexander Zverev beat Jacob Fearnley 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 and No. 3 Carlos Alcaraz defeated Nuno Borges 6-2, 6-4, 6-7 (3), 6-2. Earlier American Tommy Paul beat Roberto Carballes Baena 7-6 (0), 6-2, 6-0 to also advance to the fourth round.

Sabalanka broke Tauson’s serve in the third game of the second set and from there the odds were in Sabalenka’s favor — when Sabalenka has an early break in a set, she wins it 88% of the time. But she still needed a break after seven deuces in the ninth game to put her in control and served out the match — after saving two break points in the final game.

“That was a great battle, she played unbelievable tennis,” Sabalenka said. “I am super happy I was able to push myself. I told myself, ‘well girl, you are tough.’ So many times I thought I was done.”

In another match Friday, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova beat Laura Siegemund 6-1, 6-2 to also advance to the fourth round. Siegemund beat Olympic gold medalist Zheng Qinwen in the second round.

Also advancing Friday were 11th-seeded Paula Badosa, who beat Marta Kostyuk 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, and 18th-seeded Donna Vekic, who defeated 12th-seeded Diana Shnaider 7-6 (4), 6- (3), 7-5.. And 14th-seeded Mirra Andreeva beat Magdalena Frech 6-2, 1-6, 6-2.

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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis