World No. 4 Coco Gauff cruises into the Australian Open quarter-finals

The GIST: The Grand Slam Down Under enters its second week in Melbourne, with courtside vibes and IRL visitors hitting all-time highs as the quarter-finals begin. Love to see it.

Women’s singles: Calm, cool, and collected since her 2023 U.S. Open major win, world No. 4 Coco Gauff has yet to drop a set, cruising to today’s quarter-final match against Marta Kostyuk in record time.

• Joining the fan favorite in the quarters is defending champion No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka. Like Gauff, newly superstitious Sabalenka has swept her competition thus far and returns to the court today to face No. 9 seed Barbora Krejčíková.

• But noticeably absent is No. 1 Iga Świątek (pronounced sh-fee-ON-tek), who fell to Czech teenager Linda Nosková on Saturday. Świątek’s loss marks the earliest exit for a woman’s top seed at the tournament since 1979.

Men’s singles: Canada’s pride and joy, Félix Auger-Aliassime, sputtered out in the third round on Saturday, but North America has one remaining homegrown hope: No. 12 Taylor Fritz. The American defeated No. 7 Stefanos Tsitsipas on Saturday, advancing to his first-ever tourney quarter-final where he’ll face…No. 1 Novak Djokovic. Tough draw.

• Djokovic will make his 58th quarter-final appearance at a major tomorrow as he fights for his record-extending 25th Grand Slam singles title.

• And last night, No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz and No. 3 Daniil Medvedev locked in their own quarters’ berths, along with controversial competitor No. 6 Alexander Zverev. Yay?