- Shelton was beaten in a grueling five-set battle with France’s Adrian Mannarino
- Korda, meanwhile, failed to get past Andrey Rublev in a straight-sets defeat
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Ben Shelton and Sebastian Korda became the latest US stars to crash out of the Australian Open on Friday, leaving Tommy Paul, Taylor Fritz and Alex Michelsen as the last men standing.
Shelton, the 16th seed at this year’s tournament, was beaten in a grueling five-set battle with 20th seed Adrian Mannarino, who prevailed after four hours and 46 minutes of their third-round tie.
As for Korda, the No 29 seed suffered a straight-sets defeat at the hands of fifth-seed Andrey Rublev, coming as another blow to America’s male contingent Down Under.
It has been a miserable tournament so far for the US as a whole out in Australia, where the likes of Frances Tiafoe, Chris Eubanks, Jessica Pegula and Danielle Collins have already been eliminated.
From the men’s side, Paul, Fritz and Michelsen are now the only remaining competitors for America at the season-opening event.
Ben Shelton and Sebastian Korda became the latest US stars to crash out of Australian Open
Shelton, the 16th seed at this year’s tournament, was beaten in a grueling five-set battle with 20th seed Adrian Mannarino
As for Korda, the No 29 seed suffered a straight-sets defeat against fifth-seed Andrey Rublev
Four women stars are still in the competition, including US Open champion Coco Gauff, who is set to face Magdalena Frech in the fourth round this weekend.
Shelton was denied a rematch with Novak Djokovic after his defeat to Mannarino, four months on from his loss against the world No 1 at the US Open.
Djokovic found his form at the Australian Open this week in a straightforward win over Tomas Martin Etcheverry.
The 10-time champion has been struggling with illness and was well short of his best in his first two matches, particularly a second-round clash with Alexei Popyrin on Wednesday that he was lucky to escape.
But Djokovic, playing his 100th match at Melbourne Park, looked much more like his usual self in a 6-3 6-3 7-6 (2) victory over Argentina’s Etcheverry, who beat Andy Murray in the first round.
The Serbian was hitting his groundstrokes with their customary ferocity again and, although there were perhaps still a few more mistakes than he would have liked, he was always fully in control of his 92nd win on these grounds.
Djokovic said: “It was a great match, the best performance I had during this tournament. I’m pleased with the way I played throughout the entire match, particularly the first two sets.”