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Andrey Rublev

The rest of last night during the opening day Australian Open Quarter-Finals other than the three hour, three set women’s match was massive that began with a four set showdown followed by back-to-back straight sets successions as we head into the other half last 8 matches later today & tonight at Rod Laver Arena. Taylor Fritz went so close before he won the 2nd set on what has been a great 1st half effort but Novak Djokovic still holds the court all along to book his place in the semi-final while Jannik Sinner got around Andrey Rublev in the closest of matches & he too has done in straight sets going into Friday as Djokovic’s next opponent. Plus, it’s going to be Coco Gauff v Aryna Sabalenka again this time in the semi after Sabalenka was too good for Barbora Krejcikova.

For Fritz, he had amazing display that pushed Djokovic to the limit earlier on where he was oh so close in the first set followed by a 2nd set win at last to share the lead at 1-1. But just couldn’t kick on when it comes to the 2nd half form unfortunately and that’s where Djokovic eventually caught him out in the end as he had another great finals run here. As for Djokovic, he had some early setbacks against an early finals challenger despite having the early lead. He was able to respond really well like an seasoned champion though for the majority that got him over the line first and the Djoker is ready to take on a challenger who is tipped to win a grand slam trophy sooner rather than later in Italian Jannik Sinner.

Meanwhile, Rublev’s time is over as always where he has still yet to play past the Quarter-Finals after he broke the hearts of Alex De Minaur the other day in the fourth round. He wasn’t bad at the start where he had some great challenges to keep it up with his opponent. But just didn’t have the execution needed to stop Sinner in his tracks unfortunately despite being so close earlier on. On the other hand, Sinner is having the form of his life right now ahead of his 2nd grand slam semi-final after Wimbledon last year this Friday. He had a wonderful start while he never gave up and was being patient the whole way through to win all three sets to become Djokovic’s next opponent, which should be a cracker to watch. A young rising star v an experienced grand slam champ is something Sinner won’t want to hide & show he can live up to his potential at 22 after a great 2nd half of 2023 that includes the Davis Cup title win for Italy.

And looking back at the 2nd Quarter-Final women’s singles game, that was one was so quick in contrast to what we saw between Coco Gauff & Marta Kostyuk earlier in the afternoon. Krejcikova knows how to get the ball rolling but wasn’t consistent unfortunately where she just could not keep it up with Sabalenka for the overall lead. She hasn’t been bad in her last few AO appearances but needs to kick on from here, having had a great 2021 season with her French Open title as well as another Quarter-Final in the US Open before there not much else since then. Sabalenka on the other hand has been so dominant to meet all ends of the court including the other half bridge in particular that blew Krejcikova away. But she has a tough match-up ahead tomorrow night against someone who defeated her in the US Open Final a few months ago named Coco Gauff. She has gone through a series of easy challenges so far up until this next match, but she is the reigning champion here & have been a regular finals competitor throughout last year as Sabalenka won’t take Gauff lightly in order to try & take another grand slam title, which is the same Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup.

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Brilliant start from Team World in the beginning when John Isner & Nick Kyrgios worked well for the first set win 6-7 even in the toughest of rallies that went on during the tiebreaker at 8-10, but they fell way behind ever since with no rebound.

What a comeback for Team Europe on the other hand having gone a close first set down before Andrey Rublev & Stefanos Tsitsipas regrouped together at the restart & become exceptional along the way over the next two sets (6-3, 10-4) which was so easy for them to execute.

It’s a pity from Team World who weren’t able to kick on after two days as they want to close out their best on a high tomorrow with an outside chance of winning all four upcoming games at three points each, while Team Europe are closer to retaining the Laver Cup as long as they reach the 13 point mark first with a win in any next two of four games.

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Team World may have earned a late win at the end of Day 1 last night in the only doubles game but continued to struggle going into Day 2 when it comes to the singles battle, yes there may be really close thanks to John Isner who fought back from the first set down but even in the toughest of challenges he just unable to regroup in the 3rd set tiebreaker.

Meanwhile, Team Europe extend their lead at 7-1 as Alexander Zverev overcame Isner until the very end after extremely competitive rallies in between before Stefanos Tsitsipas didn’t find it difficult to nail down Nick Kyrgios in straight sets.

Scores: 7-6 (7-5 tiebreaker to Zverev), 6-7 (6-8 tiebreaker to Isner) & 10-5 to Zverev

6-3 Tsitsipas, 6-4 Tsitsipas

There’s two matches to come for the rest of Day 2 with Daniil Medvedev v Denis Shapovalov followed by a lone double meeting of Andrey Rublev/Stefanos Tsitsipas v John Isner/Nick Kyrgios.

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