MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Luxury brands have been getting airtime at the Australian Open as Aryna Sabalenka and Victoria Mboko advanced to the fourth round.
When the top-ranked player in women's tennis meets one of the sport's rising teenage stars, though, it'll be all about the business of tennis.
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Victoria Mboko of Canada plays a forehand return to Clara Tauson of Denmark during their third round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
Victoria Mboko of Canada plays a backhand return to Clara Tauson of Denmark during their third round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus reacts after defeating Anastasia Potapova of Austria in their third round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)
Victoria Mboko of Canada waves after defeating Clara Tauson of Denmark in their third round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus reacts after defeating Anastasia Potapova of Austria in their third round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)
No. 1 Sabalenka edged Anastasia Potapova 7-6 (4), 7-6 (7) and 19-year-old Mboko ousted 14th-seeded Clara Tauson 7-6 (5), 5-7, 6-3 to advance to the Round of 16.
Sabalenka has won the Australian Open twice and reached the final here last year. She has also won two U.S. Open titles. Mboko is making her Australian Open debut at Melbourne Park.
There's been a bigger focus on fashion than usual at the tournament after Naomi Osaka's dramatic walk-on for her first-round match.
So both had to field questions about endorsement deals timed to coincide with the year's first major — Sabalenka with Gucci; Mboko with Rolex — but the main focus Friday was, more pertinently, on a match-up between two players of vastly different experience.
“First of all, I never actually talked to her, never had chance to hit, to practice with her. I've only seen her outside,” Sabalenka said. “I was watching some matches. Yeah, she’s a great player. She’s a fighter. She’s playing really good, aggressive tennis.”
Sabalenka is playing at the Australian Open for the eighth time, has won 22 titles on tour and earned more than $45 million in prize money in her career. She was long considered among the brightest prospects in the sport but had to overcome nerves and problems with her serve. It wasn't until her fourth trip to the Australian Open that she advanced to the second week.
“I feel like maybe for me, it would be really tough to handle the success at young age,” Sabalenka said. “But I feel like now seeing these girls, so like young age achieving so much, playing such a great tennis, being really mature, it’s incredible. I feel like they mature much faster than I did.”
Mboko acknowledged it'll be a huge step up, on and off the court. It's her fourth major and her first time into the Round of 16. She has won two WTA titles, her first last year as an 18-year-old wild card in Montreal.
“I think it’s super cool. I’ve never played a current No. 1 in the world. That’s going to be a very different experience,” she said. "I assume we’d be playing on Rod Laver, as well. I’ve never played on a Grand Slam center court either. A lot of firsts.
“To be doing that on Sunday is, I think, really cool. Just to show what I got.”
Sabalenka has developed a large following by being very active on social media, bringing new fans to tennis and giving existing fans a look behind the scenes.
She takes the role of being an ambassador for the public, and a positive influence for younger players, seriously. Mboko is about to get her first close-up experience.
“That’s the only focus I have, is to be good example, to show that you can balance things, that you have to have fun and also be really focused on your career," she said. "Just so the young kids are not making the same mistake that I made, being too much on tennis and it’s actually created a lot of pressure and it’s kind of like destroying yourself from inside.
“I’m just trying to be an example for the next generation to be fun, to be willing to do things that you like that brings you joy, but also the same time being focused on tennis.”
Victoria Mboko of Canada plays a forehand return to Clara Tauson of Denmark during their third round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
Victoria Mboko of Canada plays a backhand return to Clara Tauson of Denmark during their third round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus reacts after defeating Anastasia Potapova of Austria in their third round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)
Victoria Mboko of Canada waves after defeating Clara Tauson of Denmark in their third round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus reacts after defeating Anastasia Potapova of Austria in their third round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s top prosecutor on Friday denied a claim by U.S. President Donald Trump that his intervention halted the execution of 800 people detained in nationwide protests, calling his comments “completely false.”
The news agency of Iran’s judiciary, Mizan, quoted Mohammad Movahedi as making the comment. It again calls into question whether there will be mass executions over the nationwide protests. Officials have already said some detainees face death penalty charges.
“This claim is completely false; no such number exists, nor has the judiciary made any such decision,” Movahedi said, according to Mizan.
Trump has said that mass executions and the killing of peaceful protesters are both red lines for a possible U.S. military strike on Iran.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) —
The toll in Iran's bloody crackdown on nationwide protests has reached at least 5,002 people killed, activists said Friday, warning many more were feared dead as the most comprehensive internet blackout in the country's history crossed the two-week mark.
The challenge in getting information out of Iran persists because of authorities cutting off access to the internet on Jan. 8, even as tensions rise between the United States and Iran as an American aircraft carrier group moves closer to the Middle East — a force U.S. President Donald Trump likened to an “armada” in comments to journalists late Thursday.
Analysts say a military buildup could give Trump the option to carry out strikes, though so far he's avoided that despite repeated warnings to Tehran.
“While President Trump now appears to have backtracked, likely under pressure from regional leaders and cognizant that airstrikes alone would be insufficient to implode the regime, military assets continue to be moved into the region, indicating kinetic action may still happen,” a New York-based think tank called the Soufan Center said in an analysis Friday.
The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency offered the death toll, saying 4,716 were demonstrators, 203 were government-affiliated, 43 were children and 40 were civilians not taking part in the protests. It added that more than 26,800 people had been detained in a widening arrest campaign by authorities.
The group's figures have been accurate in previous unrest in Iran and rely on a network of activists in Iran to verify deaths. That death toll exceeds that of any other round of protest or unrest in Iran in decades, and recalls the chaos surrounding Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Iran’s government offered its first death toll Wednesday, saying 3,117 people were killed. It added that 2,427 of the dead in the demonstrations that began Dec. 28 were civilians and security forces, with the rest being “terrorists.” In the past, Iran’s theocracy has undercounted or not reported fatalities from unrest.
The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the death toll, in part because of authorities cutting access to the internet and blocking international calls into the country. Iran also reportedly has limited journalists’ ability locally to report on the aftermath, instead repeatedly airing claims on state television that refer to demonstrators as “rioters” motivated by the United States and Israel, without offering evidence to support the allegation.
The new toll comes as tensions remain high over Trump laying down two red lines over the protests — the killing of peaceful demonstrators and Tehran conducting mass executions. Iran’s attorney general and others have called some of those being held “mohareb” — or “enemies of God.” That charge carries the death penalty. It had been used along with others to carry out mass executions in 1988 that reportedly killed at least 5,000 people.
The American military meanwhile has moved more military assets toward the Mideast, including the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and associated warships traveling with it from the South China Sea.
A U.S. Navy official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military movements, said Thursday that the Lincoln strike group is in the Indian Ocean.
Trump said Thursday aboard Air Force One that the U.S. is moving the ships toward Iran “just in case” he wants to take action.
“We have a massive fleet heading in that direction and maybe we won’t have to use it,” Trump said.
Trump also mentioned the multiple rounds of talks that American officials had with Iran over its nuclear program prior to Israel launching a 12-day war against the Islamic Republic in June, which saw U.S. warplanes bomb Iranian nuclear sites. He threatened Iran with military action that would make earlier U.S. strikes against its uranium enrichment sites “look like peanuts.”
“They should have made a deal before we hit them,” Trump said.
The U.K. Defense Ministry separately said that its joint Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jet squadron with Qatar, 12 Squadron, “deployed to the (Persian) Gulf for defensive purposes noting regional tensions.”
Iran commemorated “the Day of the Guardian” on Friday, an annual event for its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which was key in putting down the nationwide protests.
To mark the day, an Iranian state television channel aired a typically religious talk show that instead saw its cleric and prayer singers look at Iranian military drones. They fired up the engines of several of the Shahid drones, one of which has been used extensively by Russia in its war on Ukraine.
A man identified as a member of the security forces, who wore a surgical mask and sunglasses during the telecast to hide his identity, also made a threat in mangled Hebrew toward Israel, trying to say: “We are closer to you than you think.”
Konstantin Toropin in Washington, and Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed to this report.
In this photo released by an official website of the office of the Iranian supreme leader, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks in a meeting, in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)
People walk at Tehran's historic Grand Bazaar, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026, in Iran. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
People walk at Tehran's historic Grand Bazaar, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026, in Iran. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
