Watch highlights as world number one Andy Murray suffers a shock defeat in the fourth round of the Australian Open against Germany’s Mischa Zverev.
| Australian Open 2017 |
|---|
| Venue: Melbourne Park, Melbourne Dates: 16-29 Jan |
| Coverage: Daily live commentary on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra; live text on selected matches on the BBC Sport website; TV highlights on BBC Two and online from 21 January. |
Roger Federer continued his remarkable return from injury by seeing off Kei Nishikori in five sets to reach his 13th Australian Open quarter-final.
The 35-year-old beat fifth seed Nishikori 6-7 (4-7) 6-4 6-1 4-6 6-3 to keep alive his hopes of an 18th Grand Slam and fifth Australian Open title.
Federer, seeded 17th, is playing his first competitive event since Wimbledon six months ago following a knee injury.
He will play Mischa Zverev, conqueror of Andy Murray, in the last eight.
Third seed Stan Wawrinka beat Andreas Seppi 7-6 (7-2) 7-6 (7-4) 7-6 (7-4) and goes on to face Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who beat Dan Evans 6-7 (4-7) 6-2 6-4 6-4.
After dropping his opening two service games, Federer found the range that had seen him hammer Tomas Berdych in the previous round, giving Nishikori a torrid time.
“It was a great match and a joy to be part of it,” said Federer.
“I wasn’t playing badly in the first set – it’s a quick court and things happen fast. It was about staying calm at 4-0.
“I thought it can’t get any worse from there. It was hard not to win that first set after all the effort but it paid off in the end. This is a huge win for me in my career.”
From 5-1 down, the Swiss roared back – almost taking the set before losing out in a tie-break – and clinching the second set with a solitary break.
The third disappeared in a flash as Federer took apart the Nishikori serve, winning every point on the Japanese player’s second serve, and he went close to breaking through again early in the fourth set.
Nishikori, 27, held on under huge pressure and forced a decider but it was Federer who proved the stronger, racing into a 3-0 lead and closing it out – to the delight of most of those on Rod Laver Arena.
Federer played just seven events in 2016 after injuring his knee the day after his Australian Open semi-final and having arthroscopic knee surgery.
He dropped out of the world’s top 10 for the first time in 734 weeks last November, and arrived in Melbourne ranked 17th – his lowest position since May 2001.
The Swiss is the oldest man to reach a Grand Slam quarter-final since the 39-year-old Jimmy Connors at the 1991 US Open.
But the departure of first Djokovic and then Murray has thrown the draw wide open, with Federer, as well as the likes of Wawrinka and Rafael Nadal, in with a chance of adding to their Grand Slam tallies.
“I felt like if Rafa and myself can be healthy, yes, you can expect us in the quarter-finals,” Federer added.
“That Novak and Andy are not, that is a big surprise. I never thought that Mischa Zverev and Denis Istomin would beat those two big guys.
“I guess it’s good for tennis that a lot of guys believe stronger now that the top guys are beatable, are vulnerable, especially on a faster court. It happened completely in different circumstances.
“But two huge surprises. No doubt about that.”
Frenchman into Australian Open quarter-finals over Evans
No. 12 seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga continued his love affair with the Australian Open on Sunday, not dropping serve as he thrilled the Melbourne crowd with a tight 6-7(4), 6-2, 6-4, 6-4 fourth-round win over Daniel Evans on Hisense Arena.
The 2008 runner-up is into the quarter-finals here for the first time since 2013. Tsonga now plays fourth seed Stan Wawrinka for a place in the last four. The Swiss star leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry 4-3 and has won their past three matches.
“It’s going to be a tough match,” said Tsonga. “I know he’s playing really good. It’s going to be important for me to be good in this match and play my best level.
“I think I will be ready. It’s going to be a good challenge for me to play against Stan.”
Evans was competing in the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the first time, having stunned Marin Cilic and Bernard Tomic at Melbourne Park. He had reached his first ATP World Tour final last week in Sydney (l. to Muller).
The Briton continued his hot form against Tsonga, striking first in the tie-break by taking a 3/1 lead and holding his slight advantage the rest of the way. Tsonga responded brilliantly by racing to a 4-0 lead in the second set and ultimately levelling the match at one set each.
The Frenchman broke Evans immediately to start off the third set. Little separated the pair, but that early advantage was all Tsonga needed to take a commanding lead. The fourth set was nearly identical, with Tsonga grabbing an early break and comfortably serving out the match to love to prevail in two hours and 53 minutes.
“Before the match I knew if it started to be really physical, it was going to be on my side, I think,” said Tsonga. “That’s what happened. So the first set was difficult. Then I played pretty strong and made him run a lot in the second set.
“I just served really well, too. Then it was an advantage for me. I didn’t have to defend too many break points. That was an advantage for me.”
The 31-year-old Tsonga, who finished runner-up to Roger Federer in his lone Grand Slam final at Melbourne Park in 2008, is bidding to reach his first major semi-final since Roland Garros 2015, when he fell to Wawrinka.
| Australian Open 2017 |
|---|
| Venue: Melbourne Park, Melbourne Dates: 16-29 Jan |
| Coverage: Daily live commentary on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra; live text on selected matches on the BBC Sport website; TV highlights on BBC Two and online from 21 January. |
Top seed and defending champion Angelique Kerber suffered a fourth-round exit from the Australian Open to world number 35 Coco Vandeweghe.
German Kerber, 29, claimed Grand Slam titles at Melbourne and the US Open last year, but lost 6-2 6-3.
American Vandeweghe, 25, faces a last-eight meeting with Spain’s French Open champion Garbine Muguruza, who beat Romanian Sorana Cirstea 6-2 6-3.
Venus Williams also progressed, beating Germany’s Mona Barthel.
The 36-year-old seven-time Grand Slam champion – the oldest player in the women’s singles – won 6-3 7-5 in Melbourne and will take on Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who beat fellow Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-3 6-3.
More to follow.
German records breakthrough win on Rod Laver Arena
Mischa Zverev produced a bold display of tennis on Sunday to shock top seed Andy Murray 7-5, 5-7, 6-2, 6-4 in the fourth-round of the Australian Open in Melbourne.
With the win, Zverev moves into his first Grand Slam quarter-final. He broke Murray eight times in the match to score the upset in three hours and 33 minutes. He now plays the winner between No. 17 seed Roger Federer and fifth seed Kei Nishikori.
The win records a remarkable career turnaround over the past two years for Zverev, who was ranked No. 1,067 in the Emirates ATP Rankings in March 2015.
Britain’s Dan Evans had his best run at a Grand Slam ended by a 6-7 (4-7) 6-2 6-4 6-4 loss to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the last 16 of the Australian Open.
Evans, ranked 51 in the world, started off promisingly as he traded blows with the Frenchman before winning the opening set on a tie-break.
But Tsonga’s heavy hitting and big serving took its toll as the 12th seed won the next three sets.
Tsonga will play 2014 champion Stan Wawrinka in the quarter-finals.
Evans, who reached his first ATP final this month and beat former US Open champion Marin Cilic and home favourite Bernard Tomic to reach the last 16, survived long enough to be the last remaining Briton in the men’s singles after Andy Murray’s shock defeat by Mischa Zverev.
He had to fend off four break points in the first set, while having only one on the Tsonga serve, before threatening to repeat the shocks of earlier rounds by taking the tie-break.
However, Tsonga heeded the warning and quickly went 4-0 up in the second set as he began to dominate Evans with his powerful and accurate hitting.
While Evans sporadically threatened the 2008 finalist, and managed 43 winners to Tsonga’s 59, the Frenchman was always in control after the first set and won the match with a service game to love.
“Dan played good tennis and he had nothing to lose,” said Tsonga.
“It was difficult for me because he was hitting the ball really early. After that the game was pretty difficult, then I went over him and finished strong.
“I’ve played pretty good since the start of the tournament. It will be a good challenge against Stan Wawrinka – he’s playing unbelievably.”
Grigor Dimitrov was eager to avoid a late-night marathon at the Australian Open on Saturday, dispatching 18th seed Richard Gasquet 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 in two hours and two minutes to advance to the fourth round.
After Rafael Nadal’s five-set victory over Alexander Zverev extended the day session on Rod Laver Arena, Dimitrov and Gasquet didn’t get underway until 11:58 p.m. local time in Melbourne. The seventh battle between two of the more majestic one-handed backhands on tour would go the way of the Bulgarian in convincing fashion. He fired 48 winners, including 11 aces, while turning aside six of seven break points faced. He continued his impressive start to the season, remaining undefeated (8-0) after lifting his fifth ATP World Tour trophy in Brisbane two weeks ago.
The lead changed hands early in the first set, but a break to love for 5-3 gave Dimitrov the decisive advantage. He would escape a 0/40 hole in the next game and eventually closed out the opener on his fourth set point. Dimitrov was off to the races from there, breaking immediately to open the second set and once again in the seventh game to take a commanding two-set lead.
A rifled backhand winner and Gasquet unforced error would hand the 15th seed the lead in the opening game of the third set and he did not look back, securing the victory at exactly 2:00 a.m. on his second match point. The record for latest finish at Melbourne Park is 4:33 a.m., set by Lleyton Hewitt and Marcos Baghdatis in a 2008 third-round thriller.
“Lately I’ve been struggling with my sleeping and going to bed late, so this is great,” Dimitrov joked. “It’s my first win on this court so I’m embracing this moment. Thanks to all the fans who stayed here.
“A match like that, it helps me. It helps me to have more confidence, to feel better on the court, more secure in my shots. Just a lot of positives. I take a lot of positives out of that match. The first couple of matches were so-so in my opinion. To be able to come out tonight and step up against a player like Richard, it means a lot to me and gives me good credit. At the same time I just need to focus now, just need to keep the same line, just control what I can.”
It was Dimitrov’s second straight victory over Gasquet, having most recently prevailed at the Shanghai Rolex Masters in October. The Frenchman had previously won their first five FedEx ATP Head2Head encounters from 2011-15.
Dimitrov will feature in the Round of 16 at the Australian Open for the third time in four years. His best finish came in 2014, when he upset Milos Raonic en route to the quarter-finals (l. to Nadal). He will look to match that result with a win over wild card Denis Istomin on Monday. It will be just their second encounter.
Istomin continued his dream run in Melbourne by reaching the second week here for the first time in 11 attempts. Two days after his monumental five-set win over second seed and two-time defending champion Novak Djokovic, the wild card prevailed 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 over Pablo Carreno Busta.
“It was mentally tough because after beating Novak I didn’t want to lose three sets in a row, and then everybody saying that I’m was too tired,” Istomin said. “I recovered well. I was ready for the match. I think I played good, as well. The conditions were different. The centre court is much slower than that court. So my return wasn’t working like with Novak. Carreno Busta is a big server. But in the end I’m happy to win.”
Istomin fired 16 aces and 51 winners throughout the match, but was most impressive with his stamina. He still looked fresh deep in the fifth set while the Spaniard appeared tired from the hours of long baseline rallies. Istomin raced through the final four games of the match, converting his second match point on a backhand error from Carreno Busta.
The 30 year old from Uzbekistan will aim to reach his maiden Grand Slam quarter-final against Dimitrov.
“With Grigor, I think I beat him when he was like 17 in a Challenger,” Istomin added. “It was a tough match. But I lost to him in Shanghai [in 2014]. He’s been in the Top 10 so I will try to play like I played with Novak and today, and we will see.”
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