Australian Open 2013: Day Eight Highlights

With the remaining 16 gladiators fighting it out for a spot in the quarter-finals, Day Eight of the Australian Open was all about survival; both of, and amongst the fittest. Not one of the matches was a chance fixture as each player had come in with some credibility left over from the previous rounds, either by causing an upset or by scaling and topping their own personal bests of the past years.

Women on Fire

Both in the morning and in the evening, it was the women who took to the courts first. Two-time Grand Slam champion Svetlana Kuznetsova opened the day’s proceedings against 10^th-seed Caroline Wozniacki and had to literally slog it out in a gritty three-setter after having won the first set. The Russian eventually prevailed 6-2, 2-6, 7-5 with a decisive break in the 12^th game of the final set on the Dane’s serve.

Azarenka, who took to the Rod Laver Arena after the Kuznetsova-Wozniacki match, didn’t take any time at all, firing it up with two breadstick scores – 6-1, 6-1 – over unseeded Russian Elena Vesnina, who’s rhythm seemed unnaturally askew. In the Hisense Arena, meanwhile, in the morning session of the day’s play, American teenager Sloane Stephens and Serbian unseeded talent Bojana Jovanovski fought a mighty battle with the American, breaking the Serb in the 12^th game of the third set to enter her first Grand Slam quarter-finals.

Serena Williams, who began the evening session at the Rod Laver Arena, cruised against 14^th-seeded Russian Maria Kirilenko with a near-perfect score of 6-2, 6-0. Her game nearly faultless, Serena Williams’ opening game saw her 0-40 down before she magnificently turned the match around, without dropping a single game in the 57-minute encounter.

Allez! C’est France!

11^th seeded Richard Gasquet took on fellow Davis Cup team member Jo-Wilfred Tsonga in the first men’s fourth round match for the day. The latter came out all guns blazing on the erratically playing Gasquet who managed to win the second set for his ‘in-vain’ heroics.

Unseeded v/s Unseeded

In what should have otherwise been a quarter-final match between the 6^th seed Juan Martin Del Potro and the 12^th seed Marin Cilic, it was unseeded Frenchman Jeremy Chardy who played against unseeded Italian Andreas Seppi in this low-key fourth round match. Although Chardy lost the first set in the tie-break, he went on to overpower the Italian in the next three sets to reach his maiden Grand Slam quarter-finals.

Of Murray and Worry and the Roger Magic

British number one Andy Murray took charge against Gilles Simon, the last of the four French musketeers in the Australian Open men’s draw. Simon’s form was a cause of worry, especially as he was still feeling the toll of the mammoth five-setter in his third round against compatriot Gael Monfils. Murray dominated the proceeding right from the get-go and though Simon displayed flashes of defiance at off-intervals, it proved to be a straight-forward, straight-set win for Murray – 63, 6-2, 6-3.

The second match in the evening session at the Rod Laver Arena was about two giants. One a 22-year old giant serving Canadian and the other a giant collector of tennis tournaments, this was the match of the day with Milos Raonic trying to attempt to plug the solid run of Roger Federer in the 2013 Australian Open.

It was however a one-sided match in Federer’s favour as he went to win 6-4, 7-6, 6-2 with one break of serve in the first set and two in the third and final set to reach his 35^th consecutive quarter-final appearance at the Grand Slams.