Saturday's action in Melbourne Park did not deliver any tight matches or dramatic settlements, while just one of all eight contests ended up in more than three sets.
Andy Murray ended up his epic AO run after coming up short against Roberto Bautista Agut. Despite having almost 11 hours of play in his legs so far, the Scot has not gave up easily today with against seeded, and favorized Spaniard. First set could confirm, that Murray approached today's match underpowered, losing easily 1-6. Second set started with another break for Bautista Agut, but Murray showed his fighting spirit for another time in this tournament, gaining the re-break, and moving this set into tie-break. Bautista did not convert two set points (one within his own serve) and Murray grabbed it with a score 9-7. That was the end of trouble for Spaniard though, while former ATP rank leader could not relate to the previous matches and perform another come back, being just out of tank. Bautista Agut won it in 4 sets in general, advancing to the 4th round, where he will face Tommy Paul. The American defeated his fellowcountry Jenson Brooksby in straight sets, achieving best career's Grand Slam result.
The bottom part of draw consist even two more unseeded US players. Another Round of 16 pairing will be Ben Shelton against J J Wolf. Shelton, for whom this year's Australian Summer campaign is the first journey outside United States, defeated local player, Alexei Popyrin, 6-3 7-6 6-4. Wolf won another all-american battle with Michael Mmoh, with dominant score 6-4 6-1 6-2.
The most interesting match-up today was the clash between Novak Djokovic and Grigor Dimitrov. Bulgarian player was considered as the first serious test of Djokovic's abilities in this tournament, who was dealing with injury issues in previous rounds. 9 times AO winner opened the match with a break in first game, but Dimitrov took up a fight, defending 3 setpoints in 9th game and gaining re-break in another one. The Bulgarian had even a chance to steal the set, having a set-point on Nole's serve in a tight tiebreak, but the grand champion showed his typical grit, getting out of trouble, and clinching the set with 9-7 score in tiebreak. The Serbian was on the front foot since then and won it in straight sets, but needed 3:07 hours for securing his Round of 16 spot. Djokovic will face the last remaining Aussie in the draw - Alex De Minaur, who defeated Benjamin Bonzi 7-6 6-2 6-1.
Andrey Rublev will set up a great match-up with Holger Rune in the next round. Russian top 10 player defeated Daniel Evans 6-4 6-2 6-3, while Rune had no trouble against Hugo Humbert, 6-4 6-2 7-6.
