GENIE IN A BOTTLE!
Crowd favourite Eugenie trapped by Coco in third round
Melbourne, Jan. 20: Coco Vandeweghe was the first player into the pre-quarterfinals at the Australian Open when she recovered from an early break in the third set to beat Eugenie Bouchard 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 on Friday.
Vandeweghe converted her only break to take the first set but Bouchard, who reached the Australian Open and French Open semifinals and the Wimbledon final in 2014, leveled the match with two breaks in a dominant second set.
The 22-year-old Canadian broke Vandeweghe’s serve to open the third set and appeared to be in control until the American rallied.
After holding in the key eighth game of the third set, when she saved four break points in a game that went to deuce eight times, Vandeweghe had the benefit of serving first to establish with no tiebreakers in the deciding set.
Meanwhile, defending champion Angelique Kerber won the first eight games and went on to beat Kristyna Pliskova 6-0, 6-4 to advance to the fourth round.
Venus Williams beat Duan Yingying 6-1, 6-0 to end Chinese interest.
On the men’s side, Andy Murray and Roger Federer put on a masterclass as they swept into the last 16, hoping to take advantage of Novak Djokovic’s shock exit.
Murray swamped Sam Querrey 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 and Federer humbled Tomas Berdych 6-2, 6-4, 6-4 in just 90 minutes.
Federer, 35 and returning from an injury lay-off, said he even surprised himself with an imperious win.
Japan’s Kei Nishikori should provide a stern test for Federer and the fifth seed underlined his confident form by seeing off Slovakian qualifier Lukas Lacko 6-4, 64, 6-4.
Stanislaus Wawrinka, the 2014 champion, survived a four-set tussle with Viktor Troicki 3-6, 6-2, 6-2, 7-6 (9/7) and now faces Italy’s Andreas Seppi, who ousted Steve Darcis of Belgium.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga also came through in four sets against American Jack Sock and will play Briton Dan Evans, who beat Australia’s Bernard Tomic 7-5, 7-6 (7/2), 7-6 (7/3).