Another two young Americans – both from California – enjoyed milestone wins on the eighth day of main draw action at Australian Open 2026 in Melbourne, with Iva Jovic and Learner Tien both moving into the quarterfinals at a major for the first time.
Eighteen-year-old Jovic astonishingly dropped just a single game to beat the experienced Kazakh Yulia Putintseva 6-0 6-1 in her first-ever Grand Slam fourth round match, before Tien later thrashed three-time Melbourne Park finalist Daniil Medvedev 6-4 6-0 6-3.
Jovic is the youngest member of the WTA top 100, scored a first top-10 win this tournament against Jasmine Paolini, and incredibly still hasn’t dropped a set in Melbourne after her 53-minute demolition job on Day 8.
“I still don’t think it feels real,” Jovic told ESPN. “This is what you dream about. I thought maybe it would happen in many years to come, and maybe one day I would make it far, but I didn’t think it would be so quick.”
Twenty-year-old Tien, who is coached by former AO runner-up Michael Chang, is the youngest American to reach his first major quarterfinal since Andy Roddick in 2001.
In the last eight the lefty will go up against AO 2025 runner-up Alexander Zverev, who had a 6-2 6-4 6-4 success over good friend Francisco Cerundolo from Argentina.
Coco Gauff was another American winner on Sunday when she outplayed Czech Karolina Muchova 6-3 in the third set to make it at least three playing under the Stars and Stripes into the quarterfinals across both draws. It will be a 10th major quarterfinal appearance already for the 21-year-old.
Both world No.1s were back in action – Aryna Sabalenka and Carlos Alcaraz – and both are yet to drop a set during the event after hitting top gear during fourth-round tests.
Alcaraz earned a win over another American, Tommy Paul, 7-6(6) 6-4 7-5 inside Rod Laver Arena to set up a sixth meeting with local hero Alex de Minaur.
The Australian ‘Demon’ won a tight first set before cruising 6-4 6-1 6-1 against world No.10 Alexander Bublik during the evening session.
Sabalenka notched up a record 20th consecutive winning tiebreak at a Grand Slam on her way to beating exciting young Canadian Victoria Mboko 6-1 7-6(1) on the same court.
The top seed and two time champion has won 24 of her past 25 matches in Melbourne, and faces Jovic next.
In the final Sunday match at Rod Laver Arena, Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina continued her perfect start to 2026 by ousting No.8 seed Mirra Andreeva 6-2 6-4.
The recent Auckland champion has now won all nine of her matches this season – dropping only one set in the process – and moves into her fourth Australian Open quarterfinal, where she’ll face Gauff.
Late on Sunday there was sad news from young Czech Jakub Mensik, who pulled out of the tournament with an abdominal injury.
That means his fourth-round opponent Novak Djokovic, who he was expected to face on Monday, moves into a 16th Australian Open quarterfinal with a walkover.
Djokovic will play either Lorenzo Musetti or Taylor Fritz on Wednesday.
