By Ian Ransom
MELBOURNE, Jan 23 (Reuters) - World number one Aryna Sabalenka has been impressed by the longevity of Novak Djokovic and others on the men's tour and hopes one day to be the "grandma" of the women's game.
The Belarusian has already banked four Grand Slam titles at the age of 27 and is favourite for a third crown at the Australian Open where she reached the fourth round for the sixth consecutive time on Friday.
Djokovic is still going strong at 38, while 40-year-old Stan Wawrinka stole
the show on Thursday with a punishing five-set win to make the third round in the men's singles.
Sabalenka has a long way to go before reaching that stage but likes the idea of a long career as a playing mother.
"I feel like there is no age anymore in sport. It depends how you approach everything and if you have a smartteam around you," she told reporters after beating Anastasia Potapova at Rod Laver Arena.
"So I feel like your career can be extended for -- I don't know how many years.
"Ideally for me, I would love to ... maybe have kids at 32 or something. But knowing me, I know that I love to accept tough challenges. So I feel like even after having kids I would love to challenge myself, like, coming back and see if I still have it.
"So probably we're going to see me being that grandma on tour trying. Hopefully, I'll be pushing these young girls."
Sabalenka's 7-6(4) 7-6(7) win over Potapova put her on a collision course with one of the most exciting young talents in the women's game in Canada's 19-year-old Victoria Mboko, who knocked out 14th seed Clara Tauson.
In her Australian Open debut, Mboko has reached the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the first time and will have her first career meeting with Sabalenka.
The Belarusian struggled to control her emotions early in her career but said the new generation seemed better at handling the pressure brought by success at a young age.
"I feel like maybe for me it would be really tough to handle the success at a young age. But I feel like now seeing these girls, at so young achieving so much, playing such a great tennis, being really mature, it's incredible," she said.
"I feel like they mature much faster than I did."
(Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
