MELBOURNE – It is hard to imagine that Mischa Zverev could pull off another upset against the Swiss legend, although Ivanisevic was confident that the German would have sent Murray home. The resurrection of Baby Fed Dimitrov was long overdue. Konta is playing impressive tennis: Serena Williams should watch out. On Tuesday everybody will be pulling for Venus.
Monday was finally a relatively quiet day at the Australian Open, after the mayhem that erupted in the last few days when the two best male players in the world – Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic – and two of the top three women – Angelique Kerber and Aga Radwanska – were eliminated in unexpected fashion.
Today the players had to deal with extreme heat and sunny conditions. Dominik Thiem was a slight favorite in his match against David Goffin due to his higher ranking, although the head-to-head between the two stood at 4-3 in the favor of the Belgian. The fact that Goffin emerged as the winner shouldn’t be considered a surprise. All of the other favorites in the bottom half of the men’s draw won their matches in four sets: Nadal was 4-2 down in the fourth set against Monfils, but the Spaniard managed to win four games in a row; Raonic had the best of Bautista Agut and Dimitrov took advantage of Istomin’s collapse. The Uzbek – who was also slightly injured – completely ran out of gas after two five-set marathons in his previous rounds.
Despite the major upsets that shocked everyone during the first week of competition, the 50th ranked Mischa Zverev is the only real outsider in the men’s draw. It is certainly not a surprise that Federer, Wawrinka, Tsonga, Nadal, Raonic, Goffin and Dimitrov are in the quarterfinals.
Most of those quarterfinal clashes curiously never occurred at the Australian Open and will definitely continue to delight the local crowd. The tennis displayed in the first eight days of competition has been absolutely superb; not only most of the matches have been very compelling, but the quality of play has been extremely entertaining. Roger Federer’s comeback was one of the most anticipated stories of the tournament, and his matches never failed to impress thanks to the different type of opposition that the Swiss legend had to face in each round: Melzer is a lefty veteran that loves to serve-and-volley with an old-school approach to the game; Rubin is a young counter-puncher; Berdych is an established top-ten player and one of the cleanest ball-strikers on the tour; and finally Nishikori relies on a powerful, accurate and unpredictable backhand to push his opponents around and hit winners.
Roger will now have his hands full with another serve-and-volley player –Germany’s Mischa Zverev – in a match that certainly promises amazing shot-making and great entertainment. Today Goran Ivanisevic – who is always very candid in his opinions – told me that Zverev’s upset over Murray didn’t surprise him at all: “I didn’t expect Istomin to beat Djokovic, but I knew that Zverev’s type of tennis could cause Andy a lot of problems on these fast hard-courts. The courts here in Australia are definitely faster than in all of the other Slams this year.”
I personally don’t believe that Zverev has become a phenom overnight. After the unexpected popularity that greeted the 29-year-old German in the last couple of days, I would be surprised if he managed to pull off another upset over the great Roger Federer. The Swiss looked very sharp in his last two matches and is the overwhelming favorite to reach at least the semis in the top half of the draw. The only question mark in Roger’s camp would be his age: The older you get, the more difficult it is to sustain the highest level day in and day out. Roger has always defied all odds throughout his exceptional career; will he represent the exception this time around as well?
Another fascinating contrast in style is the match between Tsonga and Wawrinka. Both players are extremely strong and powerful, although Tsonga’s game is more projected towards the net, while Wawrinka’s monstrous ground-strokes are often too much to handle for any opponent. We are probably headed towards an all-Swiss semifinal with Federer’s game that seems to be more suitable to these fast hard-courts. A clash between Roger and Stan would be, however, an extremely difficult match to predict, as the psychological implications often prevail over the technical elements in the rivalry between the two Swiss stars.
After winning in Brisbane earlier this month, Dimitrov seems to be in great form. He is also an extremely nice guy. Tonight I had the opportunity to interview him and we joked about his love for tennis and “many other situations surrounding the world of tennis.”
The ladies’ day wasn’t particularly exciting. Serena won a complicated match against Strycova – a tricky opponent that loves to mix up the pace of the rallies. Pliskova powered past Gavrilova – who was the last Australian hope in the competition (although I am probably more Australian than she is). Mirjana Lucic’s incredible life story is finally coming to a happy ending in Melbourne this year, as the 34-year-old Croatian reached her first Grand Slam quarterfinal in 18 years. I was particularly impressed by the remarkable progress of Johanna Konta, who is yet to drop a set in the tournament. If Konta is not intimidated by Serena’s name and reputation, she will have a shot at a massive upset in the next round.
In tomorrow’s day session, the match between Vandeweghe and Muguruza will certainly turn into a slugfest, while Venus Williams will be everyone’s sentimental favorite. The American legend will play Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova for a spot in the semifinals.
(Article translation provided by T&L Global – Translation & Language Solutions – www.t-lglobal.com)
