Sharapova, Nishikori first to quarter-finals
Russian star now faces Williams in next match in replay of last year’s final
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA— Maria Sharapova held her end of the bargain, beating Belinda Bencic 7-5, 7-5 on Sunday to reach the Australian Open quarter-finals and a rematch of last year’s final with Serena Williams.
The fifth-seeded Sharapova fired 21 aces and hit 58 winners but needed two hours, five minutes to beat Bencic on her second match point, converting it with a successful challenge after her forehand was initially called long but getting it overturned when the ball tracker showed it hitting the baseline.
Sharapova screamed in delight after the successful challenge, and Bencic stood for a while and had to ask the chair umpire if the match was over.
“This must be the first match I won on a challenge but it felt like a clean ball — I felt like it was on the line, I was really positive about it but I thought worst-case scenario we’re back to deuce.”
Six-time champion Williams defeated No. 58-ranked Margarita Gasparyan 6-2, 6-1 in the next match on Rod Laver Arena.
Unlike Sharapova, who had to play under the roof because play started while it was still lightly raining, Wil- liams was playing with the roof open on the main arena at Melbourne Park.
Sharapova, who won the title in 2008 and lost three finals at Melbourne Park, accurately predicted a rematch with Williams in the next round.
“I expect to play her — I look forward to playing the best in the world and that’s what she’s proven in the last year,” she said.
The 18-year-old Bencic, playing in the fourth round of a major for only the third time, again found herself on the wrong end of an opponent’s aces count. Sharapova had 21, including four on her second serve. Last year, Bencic was on the receiving end of a WTA-record 27 aces from Sabine Lisicki.
Kei Nishikori was the first male player through to the quarter-finals, beating No. 9-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 in front of a partisan crowd filled with flag-waving Japanese fans.
The seventh-seeded Nishikori, the 2014 U.S. Open finalist, also reached the quarter-finals at the Australian Open last year and in 2012.
Nishikori has had trouble with Tsonga’s power game in the past, losing most recently to the Frenchman in the quarter-finals of the French Open last year.
But Tsonga lost his serve five times in the match and only managed to break Nishikori once.
Earlier Saturday in Melbourne, a medical emergency overshadowed matches on adjoining courts when Nigel Sears, Ana Ivanovic’s coach and Andy Murray’s father-in-law, was rushed to a hospital while both of their third-round matches were in progress.
Four-time finalist Murray beat No. 32 Joao Sousa 6-2, 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 and signed some autographs but skipped the customary on-court interview before leaving Margaret Court Arena on Saturday night to check on the welfare of Sears, the father of his pregnant wife.
Ivanovic was leading Madison Keys 6-4, 1-0 when her match was stopped. She could be seen saying “That’s my coach,” before both players left the court.
It was the second time in three days that Ivanovic’s progress was interrupted for a spectator needing medical aid — her second-round match was delayed for a half-hour when a woman fell on the stairs at Rod Laver Arena.
This time, the 2008 finalist didn’t come back to win.
Despite having breaks in the second and third sets, Ivanovic lost six of the last seven games to lose 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 to No. 15-seeded Keys.