Thiem dumped out by Dimitrov
TENNIS
MELBOURNE: Third seed Dominic Thiem slumped out of the Australian Open in lacklustre fashion yesterday, comprehensively beaten 64, 64, 60 in the fourth round by Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov.
The US Open champion, who came back from two sets down to beat Nick Kyrgios in an exhausting thirdround battle on Friday night, looked out of sorts from the beginning of the contest and made an uncharacteristic 41 unforced errors.
The 29yearold, who took Nadal to five sets in the 2017 semifinals at Melbourne Park, will face Russian qualifier Aslan Karatsev in his fourth Australian Open quarterfinal.
Karatsev continued his fairytale run, reaching the quarterfinals on his grand slam debut with a 36, 16, 63 63 64 win over 20th seed Felix Auger
Aliassime.
Karatsev became the first male player since
Alex
Radulescu at
Wimbledon in
1996 to reach a grand slam quarterfinal on debut.
In the women’s draw, a recordequalling 24th grand slam singles crown remains in sight after Serena Williams survived a tough fourthround encounter.
The seventime champion scrapped her way to a 64, 26, 64 win over world No 7 Aryna Sabalenka, of Belarusia, yesterday.
Fan favourite Hsieh SuWei has translated her love affair with Australia into a recordbreaking maiden Australian Open quarterfinal berth.
Aged 35, the Taiwanese player became the oldest firsttime grand slam quarter finalist in the Open Era when she upset world No 20 Czech Marketa Vondrousova 64, 62 yesterday.
Hsieh will face 2019 champion Naomi Osaka who clawed her way to a 46, 64, 75 win over 2020 finalist Garbine Muguruza.
New Zealander Marcus Daniell advanced to the quarter finals of a grand slam for just the second time after an impressive men’s doubles victory yesterday.
Daniell, whose previous best result at a slam was also at the Australian Open in 2018, partnered with Austrian Philipp Oswald to defeat the USpairing of Nicholas Monroe and Frances Tiafoe 63 75. — Reuters/AAP