Kerber beats Sharapova in 3rd round; Halep in long-haul win

MELBOURNE, Australia — It was expected to be the match of the round. Angelique Kerber ensured it never became a contest.

The 2016 Australian Open winner routed Maria Sharapova 6-1, 6-3 in the third-round match on Saturday night, meaning she'll be the only Grand Slam champion in the fourth round of the women's draw.

Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic were almost as ruthless in their straight-sets third-round wins, not unusual for a pair with a combined 31 Grand Slam titles. Whereas, women's No. 1 Simona Halep took a longer route — equaling a mark in Melbourne for endurance.

Five-time major winner Sharapova was back at Melbourne Park for the first time since 2016, when a failed doping test led to a 15-month ban from tennis.

After two comfortable wins while seeded players fell in upsets in the first two rounds and was growing in confidence but had no answers for Kerber, who is on a 12-match winning streak in a kind of comeback of her own after a sliding down the rankings last year.

"I learned a lot from the last 12, 24 months. I had a great 2016 and last year was a little tougher," Kerber said, reflecting on how her year-end ranking dropped from No. 1 to 21 when she failed to defend her Australian or US Open titles. "Anybody who knows me knows I never give up."Sharapova said Kerber was the more aggressive on court, and took more risks.

"I gave her the confidence by making a lot of errors on the return games," Sharapova said. "She's a confident player at the moment.

"A lot of things I need to get better at and improve on. This is a process. It's a lot of things that take time.

"Today was not enough (but) ... looking at the overall picture, there's a lot to build from."It was all over in one hour and four minutes, a vast contrast to top-ranked Halep's 4-6, 6-4, 15-13 win in 3:45 over American Lauren Davis in the opening match on Rod Laver.