It was expected to be the match of the round. Angelique Kerber ensured it never became a contest.
The 2016 Australian Open winner routed Maria Sharapova 6-1, 6-3 in the third-round match on Saturday night, meaning she'll be the only Grand Slam champion in the fourth round of the women's draw.
Five-time major winner Sharapova was back at Melbourne Park for the first time since 2016, when a failed doping test led to a 15-month ban from tennis.
After two comfortable wins while seeded players fell in upsets in the first two rounds and was growing in confidence but had no answers for Kerber, who is on a 12-match winning streak in a kind of comeback of her own after a sliding down the rankings last year.
"I learned a lot from the last 12, 24 months. I had a great 2016 and last year was a little tougher," Kerber said, reflecting on how her year-end ranking dropped from No 1 to 21 when she failed to defend her Australian or US Open titles. "Anybody who knows me knows I never give up."
Sharapova said Kerber was the more aggressive on court, and took more risks.
"I gave her the confidence by making a lot of errors on the return games," Sharapova said. "She's a confident player at the moment.
"A lot of things I need to get better at and improve on. This is a process. It's a lot of things that take time. "Today was not enough (but) ... looking at the overall picture, there's a lot to build from."
No 20 Barbora Strycova beat US qualifier Bernarda Pera 6-2, 6-2, leaving US Open finalist Madison Keys as the only American woman to reach the fourth round.
Keys advanced 6-3, 6-4 over Ana Bogdan and will next play No 8 Caroline Garcia, who beat Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-3, 5-7, 6-2. Sixth-seeded Karolina Pliskova beat No 29 lucie Safarova 7-6 (6), 7-5.
In the last night match, Hsieh Su-wei followed up her win over Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza by beating No 26 Agnieszka Radwanska 6-2, 7-5 to return to the fourth round at Melbourne Park for the first time in a decade. Her assignment will get tougher, with Kerber up next.
Another unexpected loss at a major had the highly-touted Zverev admitted he may have a problem.
"Definitely not physical, so... I have some figuring out to do, what happens to me in deciding moments in Grand Slam," he said.
The 20-year-old Zverev has five titles on the elite tour but his fourth-round exit at Wimbledon last year remains his best run at a major.
Tomas Berdych ended 2009 US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro's return to Melbourne Park for the first time since 2014 with a 6-3, 6-3, 6-2 win.
Fifth-seeded Dominic Thiem beat Adrian Mannarino 6-4, 6-2, 7-5 to set up a fourth-round match against Tennys Sandgren, who continued his career-best run by beating Maximilian Marterer 5-7, 6-3, 7-5, 7-6 (5).
Halep wins thriller
Simona Halep joked she was "almost dead" after her 4-6, 6-4, 15-13 win over lauren Davis in the third round of the Australian Open on Saturday, a grueling 3-hour, 45-minute match that featured a countless energy-sapping rallies and a remarkable 38 break points.
But what Halep said got her through the match wasn't her legs, it was her head.
This is a big change for a player who has sometimes wilted under pressure.
"For sure, I'm stronger mentally, and I could resist like (that) for every moment in the match," Halep said. "That makes me very happy, and I think the big win is that I could handle it."
No 1-ranked Halep has won 15 titles in her career and is a perennial contender at the majors, but has never won a Grand Slam. In last year's French Open final against Jelena Ostapenko, Halep was up a set and 3-0 and still went on to lose.
Against Davis, however, Halep held her nerve as the third set wore on and her 24-year-old opponent seemed to be gaining in confidence.
The critical moment came when she was serving at 10-11 and found herself down 0-40, facing three match points. Halep remained composed and saved them all - the first time she's come back from triple match point down in her career.
The 26-year-old Romanian also didn't get too down after wasting chance after chance to put Davis away. She blew four break points at 8-all, then another five break points at 11-all, before finally converting to take a pivotal 14-13 lead and serve it out.
The match equaled the longest-ever in the women's draw at the Australian Open in terms of games played - Chanda Rubin's win over Arantxa Sanchez Vicario in 1996 was also 48 games - but was almost an hour shorter in duration than the record 4:44 that Francesca Schiavone needed to beat Svetlana Kuznetsova in 2011.
Had this kind of match happened a year or two ago, Halep admitted, she might not have won it.
"It's much better if we compare the old Simona with the new Simona," she said. "I'm just trying to change myself to not think that much about the points."
The other challenge was also playing an opponent like Davis, who is similarly short in stature and plays a mirror-image game.
like Halep, Davis relies on speed and footwork to make up for her lack of power. And both women are scrappy competitors, doggedly chasing down every ball that comes their way.
"I think today she played the highest level in tennis," Halep said "And her backhand was just too good sometimes."
Davis, who at 5-foot-2 (1.57-meter) is the shortest women in the top 100, surprised herself, as well. She's been ranked as high as No. 26, but has never advanced beyond the third round at a major.
Playing such a tough match against Halep, however, showed Davis just how competitive she could be.