The success of Pavlyuchenkova, Rublev’s departure and Medvedev’s five-set thriller: the results of the eighth day of the Australian Open

Fatal five sets of Medvedev

One of the main intrigues of the eighth day of the Australian Open was whether Daniil Medvedev and Andrei Rublev would be able to advance to the next round and organize the first Russian quarter-final in the history of Grand Slam tournaments. To do this, the first racket of the country needed to deal with unyielding Stanislas Vavrinka, and his compatriot to beat the formidable Alexander Zverev.

The first to enter the court was the finalist of the US Open, which was rightly considered the favorite of the confrontation with the Swiss. For the Russians they spoke both a higher sowing number and an advantage in personal meetings. Until now, the paths of tennis players have crossed twice, and in both cases, Medvedev turned out to be a triumph. It is noteworthy that they intersected exclusively on the “majors”, and the matches ended in four sets.

This time the battle lasted for five parties, and Medvedev could not extend the winning streak. Daniel led with the score 2: 1 and was close to tipping the scales in his favor, but in the fourth set lost in a tie-break. This blow was too serious for him, after which he failed the final segment of the meeting and for the second year in a row sheathed a racket at the stage of the fourth round of the Australian Open.

In general, the athletes showed equal tennis and had almost the same performance at the pitch and in, but in key moments Wavrinka was more confident. In addition, he impressed the fans thanks to his brightly attacking style. The Swiss more than one and a half times surpassed the Russian in the number of actively won draws (71:44), but also made mistakes much more often (64:35).

Thus, Medvedev once again demonstrated that he is experiencing serious problems in long matches. Previously, they had played all five games on the court four times and had never won. At the US Open, he was beaten by Rafael Nadal, at Wimbledon he could not cope with David Goffen and Adrian Mannarino, and at Roland Garros he lost to Pierre-South Erber.

"Hi guys. Unfortunately, my journey to the Australian Open is over. I am very disappointed, but it was a great match from Stan. I look forward to returning to the tournament next year. I’ll try to achieve more, ”Medvedev wrote on Twitter.

First time in the #AusOpen quarterfinals since 2️⃣0️⃣1️⃣7️⃣ @ stanwawrinka | # AO2020 | # AusOpenpic.twitter.com / mTNevevHmS

Answer to Schwartzman

In addition, Medvedev commented on a recent statement by Diego Schwartzman. The Argentinean spoke about his dissatisfaction with the behavior of the Russian at the ATP Cup and said that he had stopped communicating with the fourth racket of the world. In turn, Daniel did not agree with the criticism and stated that he did not consider his actions reprehensible.

“I have nothing to answer him. We really communicated well. I understand that he is not that offended. He considered that I behaved incorrectly, but I do not agree. If he wants to talk calmly, then no questions. I have no complaints about him, ”Eurosport told Medvedev.

The reason for Schwartzman's dissatisfaction was Medvedev's actions in the face-to-face meeting within the ATP Cup. According to the Argentinean, the Russian shouted at him, gestured at the bench of his national team, and also hit the referee’s tower with a racket.

The end of the Rublev series

Unlike his compatriot, Rublev could not compete with Zverev and did not take a set. The meeting lasted 1 hour 39 minutes and ended with the victory of the German tennis player. In each of the parties, he took on the supply of the Russian, and then confidently brought what he started to the end.

The reason for such a peremptory defeat of Rublev was his complete failure at the reception. At the opponent’s pitch, he never won more than two points for the game, but in general he took only 13 of 72 draws. Moreover, only five of them fell at the moments when Zverev hit the first ball. Given that the German did this on a regular basis (75% of the first serve), the Russian had practically no chance.

In light of this, it is especially noteworthy that the bookmakers called Rublev the favorite of a duel with Zverev. His success at the competitions in Doha and Adelaide, as well as the 15-match unbeaten run made him seriously believe that Andrei could inflict the first defeat on Alexander. Previously, tennis players met each other three times, but the German always prevailed.

Thus, instead of a purely Russian quarterfinal, Australian fans will watch the battle of a young German with an experienced Swiss. On paper, Zverev, who had previously defeated Wavrinka twice, looked his favorite.

# AO2020 | # AusOpenpic.twitter.com / 3bN3suPgnc

Remake of the finale of "Roland Garros"

In the other quarterfinals, Rafael Nadal and Dominic Tim will face each other. Over the past six years, the confrontation between the Spaniard and the Austrian has become one of the hallmarks of the decisive stages of unpaved tournaments. On this surface they played with each other 12 times, only once crossing on hard. The clash took place at the US Open-2018 and ended in favor of a 19-fold triumph of the Grand Slam tournaments.

In the fourth round, Nadal and Tim had practically no problems, easily dealing with their opponents. The Austrian did not leave a single chance to Gael Monfils, and the Spaniard in four sets dealt with the owner of the courts, Nick Kiryos. It is worth noting that the offender Karen Khachanov resisted with dignity and, thanks to 25 aces and a 75% hit with the first ball, reached the tie-break in two final games. But the Spaniard was better in all key parameters, as a result of which his success turned out to be quite logical.

It is noteworthy that for the warm-up before the duel with the first racket of the world, Kirios came out in a T-shirt of the legendary basketball player Kobe Bryant, who died in a plane crash along with his daughter Gianna. Heading to the court, the Australian could not hold back tears.

Triumph of Pavlyuchenkova

The eighth day of the tournament was successful only for one representative of Russia. She turned out to be Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who for the third time in four years made it to the quarterfinals of the Australian Open. The athlete dealt with Angelica Kerber and extended the successful series in matches with tennis players from the top 20.

Despite the fact that the match was not an easy one, Pavlyuchenkova looked truly impressive. She served the first ball in 75% of cases, was more confident at the reception, and also dominated on the court. Kerber again acted solely second number, for which he paid. As a result, Anastasia’s twofold advantage in actively won balls (71:35), which is fully compensated by the fact that she made a mistake seven times more.

A more confident serve on the pitch led to the fact that the Russian woman allowed the German woman to earn only four break points, while she herself had 18 opportunities to take the opponent’s pitch. True, she managed to realize only five, which was enough for the final victory - 6: 7 (5: 7), 7: 6 (7: 4), 6: 2.

As a result, Pavlyuchenkova won the seventh victory over Kerber and evened the score in the full-time series, and also for the sixth time in her career made it to the quarterfinals of the major. To prevent her from reaching the semi-finals for the first time in her career, Garbinier Mugurus, who demonstrates a fantastic level of the game, will try. In the previous round, the once formidable Spaniard crushed the fifth racket of the planet Elina Svitolina, and then figured out the ninth ranking number Kiki Bertens.

Another #AusOpen, another quarterfinal appearance! @NastiaPav knocks out former champion Angelique Kerber 6-7 (5) 7-6 (4) 6-2 to reach the final eight for the second straight year. # AusOpenpic.twitter.com / 9G5Q9qPbbt

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A possible rival to Pavlyuchenkova in the semifinals will be determined in a duel between Simone Halep and Anette Contaveit. The Romanian showed the incredible purity of the game in the match with Elise Mertens and made only eight errors, which allowed her to gain the upper hand in two sets. Estonia, however, met fierce resistance from Igi Šventek and won only three. Moreover, none of them lasted less than 12 games. The first remained for the 18-year-old Polish girl, and the other two went to a more experienced rival.

For Contaveit, this Australian Open was the most successful of his career. Previously, she only twice reached the fourth round of TBS, but she never crossed this barrier. In 2018, she had a great chance to be in the quarter finals of the competition in Melbourne, but Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro got in the way.