The first of the two Quarter-Final days at Melbourne Park was almost full of surprises but with 1-2 seasoned champions still in the race towards their own semi-final battles that will take place tomorrow night for the women and all of Friday with the men.
Who was the surprise winner there? New York-born Spaniard Paula Badosa over American Coco Gauff even though it was a close two set game but only one have won it in straight sets (5-7 & 4-6).
Plus, Anastasia Pavlychenkova almost shockingly stole the spotlight when Ayrna Sabalenka lost the second set that easily along with a small lead before Sabalenka came back and was relieved at the end to see out the Russian with the win (6-2, 2-6 and 6-3).
So the first semi locked in for Badosa v reigning champion Sabalenka.
Meanwhile, Tommy Paul had some good moments of his own at times at the break against the 2nd seed Alexander Zverev while he denied him a straight sets opportunity with a clean strike at the 3rd set. However, the lead was way off his opponent’s radar though especially when given the chance at the tiebreak (sets 1 & 2) when Zverev clearly turned out to be the winner out of a four-set showdown – 6-7 (1-7 tie), 6-7 (0-7 tie), 6-2 and 1-6.
And last but not least, looks like the Novak Djokovic x Andy Murray duo with Murray coaching him has gone to live another day thanks to Novak’s win over Carlos Alcaraz.
The only place where Alcaraz has not won a grand slam title here will have to wait another year. Yes, he had a terrific start as one of today’s and tomorrow’s finest elite Tennis players. However, King Djokovic isn’t done with retirement just yet even at the age of 37, and there he goes to lock the Spaniard out once again like it was at the Paris Olympics gold medal match last August when it comes to the long runs – the final score was 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 & 6-4.
1st semi-final now confirmed between regular semi-finalist Zverev & 10 x Australian Open winner in Djokovic.
There’s two more QF matches today in both the women’s and men’s singles draw:
- Madison Keys v Elina Svitolina
- Emma Navarro v Iga Swiatek
- Ben Shelton v Lorenzo Sonego
- Jannik Sinner v Alex De Minaur
That last game of the day today is the one we are looking for as Australian sports and Tennis fans as well as some from the UK if you’re a Katie Boulter fan. We all know what was like when Sinner regularly won games against The Demon before but Alex’s full support will be key no matter what the result will be tonight at the RLA.
