Need a 30 second wrap for Day 8 of the Australian Open? Got you covered….
The first Sunday of the Australian Open means the start of round 4, and it was a fairly underwhelming day in terms of classic matches, but certainly set up some mouth-watering quarter-finals.
On the women’s side, Aryna Sabalenka cruised through against teenager, Mirra Andreeva 6-1 6-2, and is looking like she’s the one to beat at this stage of the event.
Coco Gauff had a hard-fought battle against recently returned mum, Belinda Bencic. After dropping the 1st set 7-5, Gauff took control of the match, going on to win 6-2 6-1. Perhaps the Tik-Tok ban was playing on her mind in the first set.
Paula Badosa is back into a major quarter-final, defeating Olga Danilovic 6-1 7-6 on Margaret Court Arena, despite admitting to a strong case of nerves before the match. She’ll take on Gauff for a semi-final berth.
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova toughed out the opening set against Donna Vekic, 7-6, before injury derailed Vekic’s chances of a comeback. Pavlyuchenkova ran away with the match, not dropping a game in the 2nd set. No doubt things will be tougher for her against Sabalenka next.
For the men, Carlos Alcaraz is through to a match-up with Novak Djokovic, after his opponent, Jack Draper was forced to retire after dropping the first 2 sets 5-7 1-6. Draper’s body just couldn’t hold up for any longer, after a trio of 5 set matches in the 1st week.
Novak Djokovic wasn’t tested as much as some expected against Jiri Lehecka, winning through in straight sets, and refusing to do an on-court interview post-match.
Another player who couldn’t put up a fight due to injury and fatigue, was Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, who won only 3 games against Tommy Paul, with the American winning in under 90 minutes, 6-1 6-1 6-1. He’ll play Alexander Zverev next, who had a tougher encounter against Ugo Humbert, dropping a set, but eventually was too good for the Frenchman, 6-1 2-6 6-3 6-2.
Follow The Tennis Site on Facebook and X: @thetennissite
Follow Todd Scoullar on X: @toddscoullar
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.