Confidence of Djokovic and Federer
Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer continue to meet each other on the Australian Open men's grid. The second and third racket of the world made it to the quarter finals, without experiencing special problems with rivals in the previous stage.
The 14th seeded Diego Schwartzman from Argentina opposed the Serbian tennis player. All three of their previous meetings ended in the victory of Djokovic, who this time also did not leave an opponent any chance of success. In the first two sets, the seven-time Australian Open champion made three breaks, which were enough for a comfortable lead.
In the third, Schwartzman still raised his head and interrupted the Djokovic series of 35 games won in his serve. But when the Serb equalized, Schwartzman began to react too violently to his failures, and such behavior of the South American did not lead to anything good. Djokovic won the tenth set in a row and entered the quarter-finals.
We're not D-joking 🃏 @ DjokerNole advances to the final 🎱for the 11th time, def. Diego Schwartzman 6-3 6-4 6-4.
Milos Raonic awaits. # AO2020 | # AusOpenpic.twitter.com / e4mcMrUMJG
Federer did not immediately come to his senses after a spectacular victory over John Millman in the third round. In a meeting with Hungarian Marton Fuchovic, the Swiss lost the first set after he made three mistakes on his serve in the seventh game and allowed the 67th racket of the world to make a break. But for Federer it was still a good workout, which soon allowed to start playing in full force. The Swiss took Fuchovich’s pitch seven times in the next three sets and thanks to this, each of them won. Federer made it to the quarter finals of the majors for the 57th time, and in Australia he achieved this at the 14th tournament.
Never 👏 In 👏 Doubt 👏 @ rogerfederer comes from a set down to advance to his 1️⃣5️⃣th #AusOpen quarterfinal, def. Marton Fucsovics 4-6 6-1 6-2 6-2. # AO2020pic.twitter.com / p5ISTPGkP5
- #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 26, 2020Departure of two mistresses of favorites
American Corey Goff and Chinese woman Wang Qiang, who knocked out Naomi Osaka and Serena Williams from the tournament, could not get the most out of their sensational victories. Already in the fourth round, they simultaneously suffered defeats and also went home. Instead, they moved on to the 14th seeded American, Sofya Kenin, and the Tunisian Uns Jabir, who became the first representative of the Arab countries in the quarterfinals of the Grand Slam tournament.
Goff and Kenin, in their duel, also determined which of them would soon make their debut at the same stage. Initially, the scales were on the side of a 15-year-old American. Although Goff was mistaken more often than her rival, she scored more points with her own game, which helped to win the first set in a tie-break.
In the second installment, Kenin led a break early and now she has not lost this advantage. Goff managed to play the setball with a score of 2: 5, but then she won only one game, and not specifically in the second installment, but in the whole match. The consolation for the 15-year-old tennis player should be that in a week she will be the 52nd racket of the world - a year ago she was not even on the list of five hundred best players.
Mission Accomplished 🇺🇸
Superlative tennis from 14th seed @SofiaKenin to def. Coco Gauff 6-7 (5) 6-3 6-0 to advance to her first ever Grand Slam quarterfinal! # AO2020 | # AusOpenpic.twitter.com / Q3Rg4Nx9vy
Jabir did not allow Wang Qiang to make it to the quarter finals in the second Grand Slam tournament in a row and at the same time took revenge for two past defeats in fights with the Chinese woman. The representative of Tunisia confidently won the match in two sets, winning 29 active rallies, while Wang Qiang herself scored only 11 points. After winning the first set in a tiebreak, Jabir no longer felt resistance and gave the Chinese one game. Now, together with Kenin, she will challenge the debut for one of them a ticket to the semifinals.
Soak it in 🇹🇳 @ Ons_Jabeur advances to her first career Grand Slam quarterfinal 7-6 (4) 6-1 over Wang to set a date with Sofia Kenin. # AO2020 | # AusOpenpic.twitter.com / eOAs0hrm2n
- #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 26, 2020Barty Against Kvitova Again
In the upper quarter of the women's tournament bracket there were no surprises. The first racket of the world, Ashley Barty, will continue to fight at home major with a meeting with Petra Kvitova, whom she already met in the quarter-finals a year ago and which she lost in two sets.
To reach the next stage, the Australian tennis player needed to take revenge from the American Alison Risk for losing in the fourth round at the last Wimbledon, as well as for failing in the ITF tournament back in 2016. The risk from the time of their last meeting reached the 18th line in the WTA rating, which did not promise Barty good prospects - the Australian only once in her career beat the rivals from the top 20 on her majors.
This time the first racket of the world also had to experience some concern. After winning the first set, she chalked up just one game in the second. Barty was four times more likely to make a mistake than to bring the rallies to victory, and Risk lost only five points in his serve for the game. But in the third set Barty nevertheless pulled herself together and made a victorious spurt at the score 4-4. The match ended in a double mistake by an American.
The hopes of a nation 🇦🇺
Top seed @ashbarty comes through like a champion.
The aussie def. Riske 6-3 1-6 6-4 to reach the final 8⃣! # AO2020 | # AusOpenpic.twitter.com / VxTJbNB8vO
Kvitova also held a three-set match, which was won by the Greek Maria Sakkari. The start of the match turned out to be unsuccessful for the Czech - she lost the entire first set due to a lost pitch and was able to catch up only in the tenth game. Soon the girls played a tie-break, and after the first two points won, Kvitova still lost the game.
But as it turned out later, for Sakkari this success did not mean anything. The next two sets of Kvitova started with breaks, which were enough to take the first six games first. The athlete from Greece simply could not oppose anything, and she completed her path at the Australian Open. Kvitova, for the fourth time, reached the quarterfinals of this at the tournament, in which she needed to defend points for last year’s final.
Petra Power 🇨🇿
Last year's finalist @Petra_Kvitova is the first through to a fourth #AusOpen quarter-finals as she dashes Sakkari's hopes 6-7 (4) 6-3 6-2. # AO2020pic.twitter.com / SDVSZ6A4tp
100th racket in the quarter finals
American Tennis Sandgren repeated his most impressive career achievement - he reached the quarter-finals of the Australian Open. Two years ago, when he did not even have a hit in the main draw of the tournament, he hit the tennis world for the first time. Now his inclusion in the top eight tennis players has again become a sensation, because since then Sandgren has not become a top-level player, and came to Melbourne in the status of the 100th racket of the world.
However, in some ways the American was always good - this is in victories over the players of the top twenty ranking in Grand Slam tournaments. He added the fifth to four such won matches, having passed the 12th seeded Fabio Fognini. In the first set, everything was decided on a tie-break, in which the Italian made a mistake at the score 5: 5 and had no time to correct. In the second, he lost with a score of 0: 4, managed to quarrel with the judge and take a medical timeout, after which he played four games, but still allowed Sandgren to win.
Fortune still smiled at Fognini in the third installment. After an exhausting 12 games, he quickly led with a score of 6: 2 and immediately realized the first of many setballs. But for the third time in a week, Fognini still could not transfer the match to the fifth set. The winner of a recent tournament in Auckland spectacularly recouped from the account at 15:40, when he had only one game left to win. Sandgren remained the only unseeded tennis player at the Australian Open and after the end of the tournament will rise at least 44 places in the ATP ranking, unless he creates another sensation and defeats Federer.
Take a bow @TennysSandgren 👏
The World No.100 upsets Fabio Fognini 7-6 (5) 7-5 6-7 (2) 6-4 to reach the quarterfinals of the #AusOpen for the second time. # AO2020pic.twitter.com / cAyIgG16a6
The last quarterfinal on Sunday was Milos Raonic. He reached this stage at the Grand Slam tournaments for the tenth time, and specifically in Australia, for the fifth time. In the fourth round, the Canadian easily beat last year’s finalist Marina Chilich without much difficulty. As in all his previous matches in Melbourne, Raonic did not allow his opponent to make a single break, having made 35 aces in a three-set match. Chilich had a chance to avoid defeat when he earned two setballs on someone else's serve of the third installment, but the 32nd seeded Raonic quickly eliminated the threat and became Djokovic’s quarterfinal.