McDonald advances to round of 16 in Australian Open

Mackenzie McDonald equaled his best result in a Grand Slam
tournament. File photo by Paul Bauman

   Mackenzie McDonald, a 25-year-old product of Piedmont in the San Francisco Bay Area, defeated Lloyd Harris of South Africa 7-6 (7), 6-1, 6-4 today to reach the round of 16 in the Australian Open in Melbourne.

   The 5-foot-10 (1.78-meter) McDonald out-aced the 6-foot-4 (1.93-meter) Harris, who won the 2018 Stockton, Calif., Challenger, 12 to nine.

   McDonald, now based in Orlando, Fla., equaled his best result in a Grand Slam tournament. He also advanced to the fourth round at Wimbledon in 2018 before undergoing right hamstring surgery in June 2019 and missing seven months.

   McDonald, the only remaining American man in singles, is set to face fourth-seeded Daniil Medvedev of Russia on Sunday (PST). Medvedev, the runner-up in the 2019 U.S. Open, topped 28th-seeded Filip Krajinovic of Serbia 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 3-6, 6-0.

   Medvedev, 6-foot-6 (1.98 meters), has not lost a set in three career matches against McDonald.

   Top-ranked Novak Djokovic said he tore a muscle in his side early in the third set of his five-set victory over 27th-seeded Taylor Fritz of Rancho Palos Verdes in the Los Angeles area early today.

   Djokovic, seeking his ninth Australian Open singles title, is scheduled to play 14th-seeded Milos Raonic on Saturday.

   In the second round of men's doubles, fifth seeds and defending champions Rajeev Ram, a volunteer assistant coach at the University of California, Berkeley, and Joe Salisbury of Great Britain beat Tomislav Brkic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and 40-year-old Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi of Pakistan 6-3, 4-6, 6-2.

   In the third round of women's singles, 25th-seeded Karolina Muchova ousted sixth-seeded Karolina Pliskova 7-5, 7-5 in an all-Czech encounter. Pliskova advanced to the final of the 2015 Bank of the West Classic at Stanford and climbed to No. 1 in 2017.

   Four U.S. women have reached the round of 16 in singles: No. 10 seed Serena Williams, No. 22 Jennifer Brady and unseeded Shelby Rogers and Jessica Pegula.

   ATP Challenger Tour — Unseeded Lukas Klein and Alex Molcan of the Slovak Republic eliminated top-seeded Andre Goransson (Cal, 2011-14) of Sweden and David Pel of the Netherlands 7-6 (5), 7-6 (1) in the semifinals of the €88,520 ($107,357) Cherbourg, France, Challenger.