TENNIS – Qualifier Dayana Yastremska and giant-killer Linda Noskova continued fairytale runs into the quarter-finals of the Australian Open yesterday 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 Slams 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 Medvedev, a 6-3 7-6(4) 5-7 6-1 winner over Nuno Borges, and sixth seed 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, 10-times champion Novak Djokovic.
“I did everything almost perfectly,” Alcaraz said.
“I’m feeling better and better every day. I’m feeling better and 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 last 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 18th seed Victoria Azarenka.
The world number 93 had to fight for her victory over the two-times Melbourne Park champion as she came from behind in both sets and smashed 38 winners on Rod Laver Arena.
“I thought that I had lost this match 25 times,” the 23-year-old said. “In some moments I felt like I was too nervous and too emotional, but then I just relaxed and said, ‘it’s going to be like it’s going to be’.”
Ukrainian hopes of a third woman in the quarter-finals 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.
Czech Noskova, who did the most damage to the top half of the draw by removing world number one Iga Swiatek in the third round, will face Yastremska in what is also her first major quarter-final.
Svitolina left the court in tears, the last of the clutch of mothers competing in singles this year to depart.
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.
China’s number one Zheng Qinwen ensured at least one would survive into the last eight in the bottom half of the draw by clinically dispatching Oceane Dodin 6-0 6-3 in the final match of the day.
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 number 69 Borges but stormed across the line to set up a clash with Pole Hubert Hurkacz.
“I’m ready,” said the Russian. “Hopefully I can show it on the tennis court. We can talk forever 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 wildcard at his own game by serving slightly bigger and slightly better in a 7-6(6) 7-6(3) 6-4 win on John Cain Arena.
Zverev’s five-setter against British 19th seed Norrie was his second of a tournament which has seen a record 32 this year.
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