Pavlyuchenkova off, Sharapova's failure and Federer's defeat: the results of the seventh gaming day of the Australian Open

Match

Up to the fourth round, Roger Federer demonstrated overwhelming confidence, methodically advancing to his historic third consecutive victory at the courts of Melbourne Park. In the first three matches, he did not lose a single set, and the match with the young Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas also did not see him as an insurmountable barrier. Previously, athletes met each other only once, and the legendary Swiss took the upper hand.

Already during the first set, it became clear that Federer would not be able to easily cope with the young opponent. Athletes finished the tie-break, where Roger was a little luckier. Tsitsipas selflessly fought, but still gave up the slack and lost with a score of 11:13 in a shorter game.

After luck left Federer. Over the next three sets, he desperately tried to win the opponent's service, but he never managed to get what he wanted. So, for the entire meeting, Roger had the opportunity to break 12 times, but at the crucial moment Tsitsipas turned out to be a little more accurate. Perhaps the key was the episode in the second set, when, with the score 4: 5, Stefanos played four set points on his serve, and then won in a tie-break.

After Tsitsipas was unstoppable. In the third installment, he made a break in the 12th game, and in the fourth game he gave his opponent a tie-break. At the same time, Stefanos surpassed the legendary tennis player in the number of actively scored goals (62 - 61), and also made much less mistakes (39 - 55).

After two hours and 54 minutes, He takes the third 7-5 against Roger Federer. # AusOpenpic.twitter.com / oziT7BYgyH

Federer sensationally left the tournament at the stage of the fourth round and lost the opportunity not only to repeat Novak Djokovic's record for the number of consecutive victories at the Australian Open, but he could not win his 100th tournament in his career. By the way, Roger will also leave the top-5 of the ATP ranking, which he has entered since March 2017.

Success

Like Tsitsipas, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova was not the favorite in her fourth round match of the Australian Open. On the opposite side of the court was the fifth racket of the world, Sloan Stevens, who by her 25 years managed to win the Grand Slam tournament once and reach the final one more time. The Russian has never gone further quarter-finals and this time could hardly count on repeating her best result.

However, the first batch showed that Pavlyuchenkova was seriously determined to crack down on her more eminent rival. At the start of the game, Stevens made a break with the move and led with a difference of three games, but Anastasia managed to recoup at great cost. In the end, the fate of the set was decided on a tiebreaker, where Sloane turned out to be a little more lucky - 7: 3 in her favor.

At the beginning of the second set, it seemed that Stevens was ready to put on her rival - she made a break again and was ready to break through, but this time Pavlyuchenkova was on the alert. Anastasia acted much more actively and, despite 11 unforced errors, twice took the pitch from her opponent.

The most intense was the starting game of the third set. The Russian woman had eight break-points, but still allowed her rival to take over. However, this success took too much strength from Stevens, which affected the crucial moment of the party. Pavlyuchenkova never again allowed her to take her pitch and triumphantly finished the match in her favor.

Disappointment

After the victory over the current champion Karolina Wozniacki from Maria Sharapova, they expected, if not a victory at the Australian Open, then at least the semi-finals. In addition, the name of her future rival in the 1/8 finals was in favor of optimism - the 22-year-old Australian Ashley Bartie, although ranked 15th in the WTA ranking, but never went beyond the fourth round at Grand Slam tournaments.

The first set only reinforced the view that Sharapova should be the hostess of the courts. Maria more confidently acted on her serve, made less mistakes, and in the ninth game she made a break. He turned out to be decisive and allowed the Russian woman to tell the story.

ICYMI: When you are a champion, you won’t be able to give it a shot before you won ash@ashbar96#AusOpenpic.twitter.com/xGOI4ANWHQ

However, after this a change occurred in the game. Barty reduced the number of indiscreet actions as much as possible, and Sharapova began to make mistakes with an amazing frequency. This led to nine consecutive lost games, which put an end not only to its prospects in the second game, but also in the match as a whole. The Russian woman could only recover when the score was 0-4 in the final game, but it was enough only to reduce the backlog to a minimum. Ashley withstood the onslaught of the owner of the “Grand Slam” and for the first time in her career she reached the quarterfinals of the Australian Open.

“I think I had a very good match. I had chances to win, but I could not use them. Of course, in the middle of a duel, I had a failure that lasted for many games, and this gave her confidence in herself, which she already had enough. After that, she did not give her. I lost a little concentration, moved back and allowed her to control the course of the draws, ”the tournament press service quotes Sharapova.

Confidence

In the next round, Barty is waiting for the hardest test in the face of Petra Kvitova. It took the sixth racket of the world exactly an hour to break the resistance of one of the main sensations of the tournament. 17-year-old Amanda Anisimova has previously knocked out two seeded players, Lesia Tsurenko and Arina Sobolenko, from the fight, but she was able to take only three games in a match with the Czech.

Kvitova demonstrated incredible stability on the pitch, in 86% of cases hitting the first ball. This was the reason that for the entire match Anisimov could not earn a single break-point, while Petra had 11 of them. In addition, Amanda was seriously worried, which resulted in six double and 20 unforced errors.

In the men's tournament, only Rafael Nadal without unnecessary nerves was able to overcome the barrier of the fourth round. He was opposed by Tomasz Berdykh, who only four times in his career was able to beat his titled opponent. In this case, the last time the Czech celebrated success was at the Australian Open. In 2015, he only needed three sets to send the Spaniard home.

Way to set up set point vs #Rafa, @tomasberdych!

But #Nadal hangs tough & we're into a third set tiebreak. # AusOpen | @ Channel9pic.twitter.com / gDAtcNF5MA

This time everything worked out exactly the opposite. Already at the start of the meeting Nadal won nine games in a row, plunging his rival into shock. As a result, in the first two games, Berdych managed to take only one game.

The third game turned out to be protracted and lasted 1 hour and 5 minutes, but Nadal came out again as a winner. At the key moment of the tie-break, the Spaniard made a mini-break and designed a ticket to the quarter-finals.

In addition, after this match, Berdykh entered the list of tennis players, whom Nadal beat 20 or more times in his career. Also in it appear David Ferrer, Novak Djokovic (both - 25 times) and Roger Federer (23 times).

Thriller

In the next round of Tsitsipas will meet with another contender for the title of the main sensation of the tournament in the men's singles. In the fourth round, Roberto Bautista-Agut added a victory over another tennis player from the top 10 of the ATP rating to his collection. Following Karen Khachanov, the Spaniard defeated last year’s Australian Open finalist Marina Cilic.

The athletes demonstrated a real battle, having spent exactly four hours on the court, and the winner was determined only on the basis of five sets. The first game ended in a tiebreaker in favor of the Croat, but the next two were left for the Spaniard. Bautista-Agut three times took the filing of Cilic, while he did not allow him to earn a single break-point.

In the fourth installment, Cilic took heart and made a desperate attempt to return to the game, but it was enough only to level the score in the match. In the deciding set, both tennis players had the opportunity to take on an opponent, but fortune was again on the side of Agut.

For the Spaniard, this exit in the quarterfinals of the Grand Slam tournament was the first in his career. Previously, he reached the fourth round nine times at prestigious competitions, but each time he was defeated.

Sensation

In general, the seventh day of the Australian Open turned out to be very rich in surprises. The first of them struck in the opening match for men. The fight with Francis Tiafo was not supposed to be an easy walk for Grigor Dimitrov, but after the first two games his position was assessed as critical. In the starting set, the Bulgarian lost his serve twice and allowed the opponent to come forward in the long run, and then in a bitter struggle, lost in the tiebreaker in the second.

In the third installment, Dimitrov gathered his strength and with great difficulty completed it in his favor. Athletes finished the tie-break again, but this time Grigor looked much more confident. In this he was helped by six innings for departure and 17 actively scored goals. However, for more Bulgarian was not enough. In the 11th game of the fourth set, he allowed Tiafoe to break and celebrate his 21st birthday with the release of the quarterfinals of the Australian Open. There he will play with Nadal.

In the women's net, the crushing defeat of Angelica Kerber was a real shock. The second racket of the world met with Daniel Collins, who occupies only 35th place in the world table of ranks, but could not oppose anything to her less famous rival. The first set turned out to be a real failure for the German. She lost on all counts and could not take a single game, losing dry to an American.

In the debut of the second game, Kerber was able to impose a struggle on her opponent, but this only lasted until the fourth game. After Collins again gave a brilliant spurt, took four points in a row and for the first time in her career went into the quarterfinals of the Australian Open. Earlier, Daniel never went further than the start round at Grand Slam tournaments.

Question

An unpleasant incident occurred during a post-match press conference with Sharapova. After her defeat by Barty, the journalists began to look for the reasons for Maria’s unsuccessful performance, but one of them turned out to be the most original. He asked the tennis player whether the reason for her not very successful performances lately was in refusal to take meldonium. The Russian woman clearly did not like this question.

“Any other questions?” Asked Sharapova.

Gap

It is not difficult to guess what the significance for tennis players is their performance at Grand Slam tournaments. High results suggest that the athlete is moving in the right direction, and unsatisfactory clearly indicate the need for change. So, David Goffin decided to change the coach after losing to Daniel Medvedev in the third round of the Australian Open.

“After finishing my performance in Australia, we, together with Thierry van Klemput, decided to put an end to our professional relationships. Together we have experienced many unforgettable moments both on the court and beyond. I am eternally grateful to him for this. I wish him all the best in the future, ”the athlete wrote on his Twitter page.