Novak defies injury to reach last eight; Thiem bows out
Eight-time winner Novak Djokovic fought through what he had described as a tournament-ending injury to beat Milos Raonic and reach the Australian Open quarter-finals on Sunday. Naomi Osaka and Serena Williams survived scares to go through but US Open champion Dominic Thiem was a major casualty when he fell to Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov.
Simona Halep avenged her crushing French Open defeat by Polish teenager Iga Swiatek to set up a meeting with Williams, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei reached her first Slam quarter-final at the age of 35.
Djokovic, the world number one, had raised the alarm over an abdominal injury after his five-set battle with Taylor Fritz, but he showed few outward signs in his 7-6 (7/4), 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 win. However, the 17-time Slam winner said he had spent “every single hour” since Friday’s win trying to recover, and wasn’t sure he would play until he warmed up before the match.
“If it was any other tournament than a Grand Slam I would retire,” said Djokovic, who became the second player after Roger Federer to win 300 Grand Slam matches. The defending
champion will next meet German sixth seed Alexander Zverev, who beat Serbia’s Dusan Lajovic 6-4, 7-6 (7/5), 6-3.
Earlier, Japan’s Osaka edged a thriller with fellow major-winner Garbine Muguruza, and Williams came through a physical test against Aryna Sabalenka to maintain her bid for a recordequalling 24th Grand Slam title.
Osaka was on the verge of elimination at 3-5, 15-40 on her serve in the third set. But the three-time major champion rattled off four points in a row and then twice broke Muguruza’s serve to prevail 4-6, 6-4, 7-5. Osaka now faces Hsieh, who
beat Marketa Vondrousova 6-4, 6-2 to reach her first Slam quarter-final in 16 years of trying.
Williams, 39, was also meeting Sabalenka for the first time and she had to weather an onslaught from the Belarusian to reach the last eight 6-4, 2-6, 6-4. “I knew it wasn’t going to be easy, she was teeing off on every shot,” said the American, who will play Halep in the quarters.
But a fatigued-looking Thiem, coming off a five-set win over Australia’s Nick Kyrgios, slumped in straight sets to Dimitrov who took it 6-4, 6-4, 6-0 in just over two hours.
Dimitrov’s victory
Thiem, the third seed and last year’s runner-up, sets up a quarter-final with surprise package Aslan Karatsev, who is into the last eight on his Slam debut.
Karatsev beat Felix Auger-Aliassime in five sets to become the first player in 25 years to reach the quarter-finals on his Grand Slam debut. The 27-year-old, a virtual unknown before the tournament started, battled back from two sets down to upset the Canadian 3-6, 1-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-4.
Halep won just three games against Swiatek, 19, at last year’s Roland Garros, but she turned the tables with a 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 win on Sunday.