A look ahead at today’s action
It’s the start of quarterfinals at Melbourne Park, and no one has a tougher task than Marin Cilic, who plays top-seeded Rafael Nadal.
Nadal has won five of six matches against the hard-serving Croatian, including at the 2011 Australian Open, where Nadal won in straight sets in the fourth round. That’s the only previous time the pair have met in a Grand Slam. Cilic, who won the 2014 US Open, isn’t overawed by Nadal. “Generally, throughout my career, I know that if I’m playing well, if I’m top of my game, that I can challenge most of the guys,” he said. “With the win at the US Open, I believe it became stronger.”
The other men’s quarterfinal has third-seeded Grigor Dimitrov against Kyle Edmund, the only British male in the draw after Andy Murray withdrew to have hip surgery.
Edmund’s ranking of 49 doesn’t give Dimitrov confidence. “He’s gone that far,” Dimitrov said. “There is no place for underestimation or anything like that.” The pair met just two weeks ago in the Brisbane quarterfinals, where Dimitrov won in three sets. said Sandgren, who was named after his great-grandfather and who comes from Tennessee.
Defending champion Roger Federer had no real difficulties in reaching the Australian Open quarterfinals for the 14th time, accounting for Marton Fucsovics 6-4, 7-6 (3), 6-2.
The 19-time major winner had never played Fucsovics but had beaten his coach - Attila Savolt here in the second round in 2002.
Federer will renew a lengthy rivalry next against Tomas Berdych, who returned to the quarterfinals for the seventh time at Melbourne Park with a 6-1, 6-4, 6-4 win over Fabio Fognini.
The win over Fucsovics was Federer’s first day match of the 2018 tournament, and he joked about needing sunglasses and a towel for the beach but said really the only change was to set the alarm for a
Second-seeded Caroline Wozniacki, who saved two match points in her second-round match and needed to come back from a 5-1 deficit against Jana Fett, can return to the No. 1 ranking she last held six years ago. She plays Carla Suarez Navarro with a 5-2 career edge, although Suarez Navarro won the last time they met - on clay last year in Madrid. “Hard courts are a little different,” Wozniacki said. “But we’ve had a lot of tough encounters on hard courts as well, three-set gruelling matches.”
Also, fourth-seeded Elina Svitolina different time.
Angelique Kerber, the only Grand Slam singles winner remaining in the women’s draw, was up earlier, and got a serious wakeup call.
For a while it appeared Kerber’s progression could unravel against No. 88 Hsieh Su-wei, a former top-ranked doubles player with a double-handed grip on both sides, until she regained momentum for a 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 win. That earned Kerber a quarterfinal spot against US Open finalist Madison Keys.
With a mix of slice and chips, lobs and bunts, whippy half-volleys and wristy crosscourt ground strokes off both wings, Hsieh pushed Kerber to the extremes.
“Credit to her. She played an unbelievable match,” said Kerber, who won the Australian and US Open titles in 2016 and is on a 13-match winning streak to start 2018. “I was of Ukraine takes on Elise Mertens. While Svitolina should have the edge over the 36thranked Mertens, the Belgian is on a nine-match winning streak. She successfully defended her Hobart International title two weeks ago, and has won four rounds here. Svitolina’s fourthround match only ended at nearly 1am yesterday, so she’s had less of a rest.
TODAY’S FORECAST
Mostly sunny, high of 26 Celsius (79 Fahrenheit)
YESTERDAY’S WEATHER
Mostly sunny, high of 24 C (75 F)
YESTERDAY’S RESULTS
feeling I was running everywhere.”
Keys returned to the quarterfinals here for the first time in three years with a 6-3, 6-2 win over No. 8seeded Caroline Garcia, and is yet to drop a set so far.
Top-seeded Simona Halep, who had to rally from triple match point down to advance through the third round, beat Naomi Osaka 6-3, 6-2.
Hsieh, contesting the fourth round in a major for the first time in a decade, certainly made the most of her time back in the spotlight.
The Taiwanese player took out one major winner - Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza - in the second round, and took the first set of Kerber.
“I like to play freestyle,” Hsieh, a two-time Grand Slam doubles titlist, explaining her unusual array of shots. “Like today I go on the court, if I don’t have a plan then I do whatever I can.”
No. 2 Roger Federer beat Marton Fucsovics 6-4, 7-6 (3), 6-2; Tennys Sandgren beat No. 5 Dominic Thiem 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-7 (7), 6-3; Hyeon Chung beat No. 14 Novak Djokovic 7-6 (4), 7-5, 7-6 (3); No. 19 Tomas Berdych beat No. 25 Fabio Fognini 6-1, 6-4, 6-4;
No. 1 Simona Halep beat Naomi Osaka 6-3, 6-2; No. 6 Karolina Pliskova beat No. 20 Barbora Strycova 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-2; No. 17 Madison Keys beat No. 8 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 6-2; No. 21 Angelique Kerber beat Hsieh Su-wei 4-6, 7-5, 6-2.