Australian Open: Berdych, Bouchard first to advance to fourth round

Seventh-seeded Tomas Berdych became the first man to advance to the fourth round of the Australian Open with a 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 win over Viktor Troicki of Serbia on Friday. [caption id=“attachment_190141” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Berdych of Czech Republic at the Australian Open tennis tournament. Reuters[/caption] The Czech player needed eight match points to clinch it, most of them in the penultimate game when Troicki held serve. He clinched it with an ace. Berdych, a Wimbledon finalist in 2010, lost to eventual champion Stan Wawrinka in the semifinals last year at Melbourne Park, where he has reached the quarterfinals or better since 2011. Troicki is still on the comeback after being banned from tennis for 12 months for failing to provide a blood sample for a doping test, a charge he denies. Eugenie Bouchard through to 4th round of Australian Open Eugenie Bouchard recovered her rhythm late in the first set to beat Caroline Garcia 7-5, 6-0 in a third-round match featuring 10 breaks of serve at the Australian Open on Friday. Six of the first eight games featured service breaks and there were seven overall in the first set. Seventh-seeded Bouchard says “I don’t think it was the prettiest tennis out there today.” Garcia only managed to hold serve twice in the match on Rod Laver Arena. The 20-year-old Bouchard reached the semifinals or better at three of the Grand Slam tournaments in 2014, including her first trip to the Australian Open.