Alcaraz leads men’s seeds through, qualifier Yastremska into quarters
Qualifier Dayana Yastremska and giant-killer Linda Noskova continued fairy-tale runs into the quarterfinals of the Australian Open on Monday, but it was all familiar faces on the men’s side as Carlos Alcaraz led a trio of top seeds through.
Alcaraz charged past Miomir Kecmanovic to reach the last eight at Melbourne Park for the first time but, with two Grand Slam titles to his name, the 20-year-old second seed is already well acquainted with the business end of Majors.
So, too, is former US Open champion Daniil Medvedev, a 6-3 7-6(4) 5-7 6-1 winner over Nuno Borges, and sixth-seed Alexander Zverev, who won his fourth-round contest against Cameron Norrie 7-5 3-6 6-3 4-6 7-6(3) in a super-tiebreak.
Alcaraz looked in brilliant form in the 6-4 6-4 6-0 win over Kecmanovic that took him another step closer to his dream final against another Serb, 10time champion Novak Djokovic.
“I did everything almost perfectly,” Alcaraz said. “I’m feeling better and better every day. I’m feeling better every match. “I’ll try to take this as an advantage, the confidence that I have and the level that I’m playing.”
While the men’s seedings have held pretty much firm at Melbourne Park over the past nine days, there has been upset after upset in the top half of the women’s draw to leave a field almost entirely denuded of seeds.
Yastremska played her part by ousting Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova in the first round and added another former Grand Slam champion to the list of her victims with a 7-6(6) 6-4 victory over 18thseed Victoria Azarenka.
The world No 93 had to fight for her victory over the twotime Melbourne Park champion as she came from behind in both sets and smashed 38 winners on the Rod Laver Arena.
“I thought I had lost this match 25 times,” the 23-year-old said. “In some moments I felt I was too nervous and too emotional, but I relaxed and said it’s going to be like it’s going to be.”
Ukrainian hopes of a third woman in the quarterfinals to join Yastremska and Marta Kostyuk were dashed in only three games after 19th-seed Elina Svitolina suffered a back spasm and was unable to continue.
Svitolina left the court in tears, the last of the clutch of mothers competing in singles this year to depart.
Czech Noskova, who did the most damage to the top half of the draw by removing world No 1 Iga Swiatek in the third round, will face Yastremska in what is also her first Major quarterfinal.
Russian Anna Kalinskaya, who had never been past the second round at a Grand Slam before last week, continued the eviction of the seeds when she beat Italian Jasmine Paolini 6-4 6-2.
In the men’s draw, the fairytale runs by lowly ranked players were ruthlessly halted. Medvedev made a bit of a meal of closing out his match against Portuguese world No 69 Borges, but stormed across the line to set up a clash with Pole Hubert Hurkacz.
“I’m ready,” the Russian said. “Hopefully I can show it on the tennis court. We can talk forever about who is ready, who is favourite. You need to win.”
Ninth-seed Hurkacz brought an end to 122nd-ranked Frenchman Arthur Cazaux’s hot run on his Melbourne Park debut, which included an upset of Holger Rune.
Hurkacz beat the swaggering wild card at his own game by serving slightly bigger and slightly better in a 7-6(6) 7-6(3) 6-4 win on the John Cain Arena.