Australian Open Day 5 highlights: Djokovic and Sharapova bring out the fireworks

With each passing day, the action at the Australian Open gets thicker. We’re mid-way through the 3rd round singles matches now, and even the mixed doubles matches got underway today, which is always a sign that the tournament is about to get serious. Okay, I’m only half-kidding about the latter part. In any case, there was a lot to see on Day 5 of the Happy Slam, and here is a recap of some of the more interesting highlights:

Djokovic goes easy on 3rd round opponent, then tears apart Lance Armstrong: The World No. 1 didn’t quite look at his fearsome best in his 3rd round match against Radek Stepanek, but he got the job done, winning 6-4, 6-3, 7-5. He looked a touch uncomfortable against the net approaches of Stepanek, missed quite a few passing shots, and even showed a sense of humor in response to Stepanek’s usual antics, but the result was never really in doubt. After the match got over, however, Djokovic let loose the fireworks. Speaking about tainted cyclist Lance Armstrong, Djokovic said that “it was a disgrace for the sport to have an athlete like this”. He also went a step further by snarling that he hoped Armstrong “suffered for his lies all through these years”. Whether Djokovic was right or wrong to use such strong words about a fellow professional athlete, it was refreshing to see a top tennis player eschew diplomacy for once and speak his mind.

Serb vs Serb: In their first Grand Slam encounter since 2008, Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic took us all back to 4 years ago, when Serbia looked set to become the new tennis powerhouse. Their games today, however, are nowhere near as good as they used to be; now seeded 13 and 22 respectively, the tennis that the two girls displayed in today’s match looked appropriately less-than-stellar. A see-sawing first set ended with Ivanovic winning it 7-5, with neither woman looking entirely comfortable holding a lead. Still, the match looked set to provide plenty more drama, before Jankovic injured herself at the start of the second set, which effectively ended the contest. Ivanovic picked up an early break and never relinquished it, and the match ended in a bit of an anti-climax, with Ivanovic a 7-5, 6-3 victor. She goes on to face Agnieszka Radwanska in the 4th round, a 6-3, 6-1 winner over Heather Watson.

Tipsarevic stretched to five sets: Tennis powerhouse or not, Serbia seemed to be the center of all the drama in Melbourne today. Janko Tipsarevic went down two sets to one against flashy Frenchman Julien Benneteau, and looked in danger of making the much-anticipated early exit that many analysts had predicted for him before the tournament began. But Tipsarevic kept plugging away, edging out a close 4th set before winning a routine 5th to eventually triumph 3-6, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3. A lot of eyebrows get raised when Tipsarevic’s name is seen among the top 8 seeds at a Slam, but the Serb is certainly looking the part at this year’s Australian Open.

Sharapova takes Venus to the woodshed: At one point, Maria Sharapova had actually won 28 straight games at the tournament. Having obliterated her previous two opponents without the loss of a single game, the Russian raced away to a 4-0 lead in the first set of her match against Venus Williams, briefly raising visions of an unprecedented third consecutive double-bagel victory. Venus held serve to make it 1-4, but there was to be no respite from the barrage coming from the other side of the net. Strangely, the American seemed to have no answer to Sharapova’s precision and power, and never looked likely to assert her game on the match. Sharapova kept blasting groundstrokes to all corners of the court, and was particularly strong on the return, as Venus’s head dropped and game wilted. The match ended with a thumping 6-1, 6-3 score in favor of the Russian, who is suddenly looking like a title favorite.

Verdasco can’t repeat his 2009 heroics: Every time that Fernando Verdasco strings together a couple of good forehands, our minds are taken back to his spectacular run here in 2009, when he went all the way to the semis and produced an all-time classic in tandem with Rafael Nadal. Unfortunately for him, his bursts of strong play are becoming fewer and further apart, and despite trying desperately to pump himself up in his match against Kevin Anderson, he couldn’t keep up his consistency, eventually falling 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, 6-7, 2-6. It was a relatively clean match considering the tendency of both men to go for broke too early in a rally – Anderson hit 55 winners to 46 errors, and Verdasco produced 52 winners to 42 errors. Anderson, however, played the big points considerably better, and Verdasco was left ruing the errors that flowed from his racquet at the crucial moments in the match.

Birthday girl ends American teenager’s run: Madison Keys, the 17-year-old American whose game and build have prompted plenty of comparisons with Venus Williams, was in the middle of a good run, having defeated home favorite Casey Dellacqua and 30th seed Tamira Paszek in the previous two rounds. But 5th-seeded Angelique Kerber, her opponent today, proved too strong an obstacle for the teenager to overcome. Kerber, who turned 25 today, got off to a quick start and looked set to register a routine win, but as she got close to the finish line, Keys started displaying her finest tennis. The German faced a few nervy moments, but it was too little, too late from Keys, and Kerber duly completed a 6-2, 7-5 victory. Things got a lot sweeter for Kerber after that, though: the organizers brought a cake on the court to celebrate her birthday, and with the crowd in the arena singing ‘Happy birthday’, Kerber looked a picture of delight as she blew out the candles.