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Carlos Alcaraz

It was a huge day of Tennis yesterday on what has been a great end to the 2nd half of the Austtalian Open Quarter-Final matches at Rod Laver Arena with back-to-back long spells for the men while there’s some first time breakthrough moments ahead of tonight’s semi-finals in the women’s singles draw followed by a day of the men’s portion on Australia Day Friday.

First of all, Hubert Hurkacz never gave up without a fight including some incredible fight backs to stay in this match. However, Daniil Medvedev has found the great escape just exactly a minute before the four hour mark. The Pole had a great record over the last two years here but this was his 2nd finals match since the 2021 Wimbledon semi-final as he looks to kick on from here in the next grand slam showings as a regular last 16-8 contender. Plus, Alexander Zverev has eliminated 2nd seed Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz by surprise where he got the job done following an unreal 1st half performance with the 3-1 set win. Didn’t see that coming when the 2 x grand slam champion was the favourite to win this one but not only he fired off poorly but was so far behind for the majority despite some good shots in the latter stages. It remains to be seen if Zverev can find a way to beat Medvedev & have the best shot of being in the Final again since the 2020 US Open where he lost to Austrian Dominic Thiem.

Meanwhile in the women, the rising star 19-year-old Linda Noskova’s time was over at the hands of Dayana Yastremska in straight sets. The Czech got a great start to kick things off including the restart but struggled to bridge the other half unfortunately where Yastremska got the upper hand. From Qualifier to now Top 4, she is now one step away from Saturday’s final where beating Zhang & then maybe taking home the trophy would be a fairytale ending from the bottom up to reaching the highest levels in this draw like Emma Raducanu did in the 2021 US Open. And 12th seed Qinwen Zheng from China has overcame a tight 1st set loss on what been a great comeback win v Anna Kalinskaya. Kalinskaya wasn’t bad on her first grand slam knockout match after some highlight wins v Sloane Stephens & 26th seed Italian Jasmine Paolini beforehand with a close 1st set lead. But unfortunately she could not stay ahead & hang in there a bit longer whilst leading up front when Zheng closed in from behind to see her eliminated from the last 8. Zheng is coming off the back end of last year as a first time finalist at the US Open where he could face Aryna Sabalenka again but this time for the final if she can get the job done tonight.

Tonight’s matches Coco Gauff v Aryna Sabalanka again having last met at the US Open Final a few months ago before Yastremska takes on Zhang where one of them will advance on centre stage this Saturday. For Friday, it will be Novak Djokovic v Jannik Sinner followed by Medvedev & Zverev as all three have yet to win a AO trophy here except Novak.

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Just saw an entertaining four-hour showdown at Rod Laver Arena where Matteo Berrettini took the first two sets before Carlos Alcaraz came out of nowhere and tied a 2-2 lead that went to a 5th set decider, but it’s Berrettini, who rejuvenated himself, during the best of ten tiebreaks & came out on top with three sets pocketed out of the best of five.

Final Score: 2-6, 6-7 via 3-7 tiebreaker, 6-4, 6-2, 6-7 via 5-10 tiebreaker

Well done to Berrettini with the hard-fought win as he will face Pablo Carreno Busta from Spain for Round 4, it wasn’t hard for the Italian to get the ground running when he was close to wrap up the game at the first attempt in straight sets. Although he had some tough moments where he lost the next two sets that included a fall along the way, but he later backed up his early lead advantage that gave him enough time to escape & prevented Alcaraz from plotting an upset.

And unlucky with the 3rd Round elimination from Alcaraz, who has plenty of potential of becoming the next Grand Slam superstar, at just 18 years old, having made it to the US Open Quarter-Final last year & sure this close loss will help him bounce back next time. Like the way how he stopped Berrettini from an early finish in the 3rd set & began to catch up with a 2-2 lead, he almost pulled off an upset, unfortunately, Alcarez just ran out of fire via the deciding tiebreak that saw Berrettini as the winner instead.

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