Bits and bobs from day 8 at the Australian Open - UBITENNIS

Bits and bobs from day 8 at the Australian Open

By Staff
7 Min Read

TENNIS AUSTRALIAN OPEN – It’s summer, it’s Australia Day. But it’s also Melbourne. And in Melbourne, Summer can mean 45C and hot wind from the North or 15C, rain and wind from South. Alas today the weather conditions were the latter, at least in the morning. From Melbourne Robbie Cappuccio

AO2015: Interviews, Results, Order of Play, Draws

It’s summer, it’s Australia Day. But it’s also Melbourne. And in Melbourne, Summer can mean 45C and hot wind from the North (i.e. desert) or 15C, rain and wind from South (Southern Pole). Alas today the weather conditions were the latter, at least in the morning. The Australian Open day started with a temperature of 13.8C and rain, which forced the organisation to close the roof of the main courts. A maiden voyage for the new Margaret Court Arena, which takes only 5 minutes to seal compared to the almost thirty of Rod Laver. Play was stopped briefly though when part of the new retractable roof on Margaret Court Arena leaked. Oopsie Daisy: speed against effectiveness. The poor weather did not stop Aussies on national holiday: it’s Australia day, mate!

It was a fierce fight between Vika Azarenka and Dominika Cibulkova. Cibulkova put so much energy to play the kind of tennis that made her reach the final last year, pounding 44 winners, including a dozen on her backhand side, as she beat the two-time champion Victoria Azarenka, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3.

Garbine Muguruza
Garbine Muguruza

She will face Serena Williams, which – under a sunny Melbourne sky (wasn’t it raining and miserable half an hour ago? Four seasons in one day)- won an arm-wrestling competition against Garbine Muguruza. It took her 17 aces and 41 winners to take home the match, after losing the first set 6-2, and awakening the ghost of Roland Garros 2014. Serena also thanked the crowd for the support “I don’t get this everywhere, so from the bottom of my heart, I appreciate it” and for the technical advice “Someone from the crowd was pushing me Come on Serena, use spin!, there are so many coaches here. Ah it was you”, Serena said pointing at a 10 y.o kid.

Madison Keys
Madison Keys

In the afternoon Margaret Court Arena became Madison Squared Garden as Americans Madison Keys and Madison Brengle played for spot in the quarter-finals. A one way match which Keys took home in one hour. She will be the only unseeded player in the quarterfinals (including mens’ singles) and will definitely have a chance against the winner between Aga Radwanska and Venus Williams (currently one set all). I said unseeded, but definitely not for long as she is now provisionally n.25. As for Brengle, she has almost no points to defend between now and Wimbledon. If she keeps winning some matches could be seeded already at Roland Garros.

The third quarter will see Ekaterina Makarova taking on Simona Halep, who is chasing her first Grand Slam. Both players are the only ones remaining who have not dropped a single set so far. Makarova conceded 23 games so far, Halep only one more.

Maria Sharapova
Maria Sharapova

In the fourth, Sharapova will face rising star (actually risen star) Genie Bouchard. Aesthetic aside – we are here talking tennis – the match will show two great competitors and aggressive players. When asked if she sees any of herself in Genie, Masha replied “I personally don’t know Genie very well. As a tennis player she’s a big competitor. She’s an aggressive player as well that likes to take the ball early and dictate points. From that perspective, yeah, definitely.” There sure be fireworks in that match, even if after Australia Day

The men’s quarterfinals will see 8 players from 8 different countries.

Stan Wawrinka
Stan Wawrinka

It took three hours, four sets and two tie-breaks to champ Stan Wawrinka to survive a scare from Garcia-Lopez. Up 2 set to love, 4-3 and serving, ended up losing the third and being taken to the tie break in the fourth, where he came back from 6-2 to win 10-8.

Stan the Man will face Kei Nishikori, who on his side bundled out in straight set David Ferrer 6-3 6-3 6-3, breaking the Spaniard five times, hitting 42 winners in what could be called a perfect match for the Japanese.

The top part of the draw will see Milos Raonic who thundered down 30 aces and won 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, 6-7 (9-7) 6-3 over 12th-seeded Lopez in just above three hours. He is now waiting either world number one and four-time champion Novak Djokovic or Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller. Guess what? The odds are for a Raonic Djokovic quarter. So far it’s 3-0 for Djokovic (or four including Davis cup) with one set only taking so far by the Canadian bomber. Raonic has achieved a record, being the first Canadian since Michael Belkin in 1968 to win through to the quarters at the Australian Open.

The bottom part will see Aussie young gun Nick Kyrgios – first teenager after Roger Federer to reach to quarterfinals of Grand Slam tournaments – facing Andy Murray who showed sharpness and character to beat Dimitrov. The last quarter is Berdych, who is playing solid aggressive tennis and feels confident of his performance so far charging Rafa, who started the tournament with low expectations and some scepticism, but is being improving day by day after an early scare against Smyczek.

Finally in the doubles top-ranked Bryan brothers were outed in third round losing 7-6, 6-3 to Inglot/Mergea.

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