daniel chigunweMELBOURNE. – Tetchy title favourite Daniil Medvedev was pushed to the limit before reaching the last eight of the Australian Open tennis tournament yesterday but women’s world No 2 Aryna Sabalenka crashed out after an epic that finished on the stroke of midnight.
Men’s fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas survived a late-night fright to reach his third Australian Open quarter-final after a pulsating day of marathon matches, frayed tempers and searing heat at Melbourne Park.
Tsitsipas was staring at defeat, trailing two sets to one before clawing back to beat the 20th seed Taylor Fritz 4-6, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in 3hr 23min of classic punch and counter-punch tennis on Rod Laver Arena.
“It was an epic match. I gave everything out on the court today, I am very proud of myself with the way I fought,” said the 23-year-old Tsitsipas who will now play Italian Jannik Sinner, who beat Australia’s Alex de Minaur 7-6 (7/3), 6-3, 6-4.
Sabalenka lost a thriller that went to a final-set 10-point tiebreak as veteran Kaia Kanepi ended the Belarusian’s hopes of a maiden Grand Slam title. Second seed Sabalenka saved four match points before losing 5-7, 6-2, 7-6 (10/7), sending down 15 double faults as her serving yips that have plagued her throughout the Australian summer came back to haunt. The unseeded Kanepi (36) made it to the last eight in Melbourne for the first time, a stage she has reached at every other major over a Grand Slam career dating back to 2006.
“It was a really tough match,” said Kanepi, who defeated three-time major champion Angelique Kerber in the opening round.
The Estonian’s reward is a quarter-final tomorrow against seventh seed Iga Swiatek of Poland who battled from a set down to beat Sorana Cirstea of Romania 5-7, 6-3, 6-3.
Earlier it took the petulant Russian men’s world No. 2 Medvedev 3hr 30min to subdue the unseeded American serve-volley specialist Maxime Cressy 6-2, 7-6 (7/4), 6-7 (4/7), 7-5 to set up a quarterfinal against Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime.
“It was long and it was not easy, the scoreline apart from the first set were all tough sets,” said Medvedev, who clashed with the umpire, complained of bad luck and screamed “It’s boring!” at Cressy’s tactics.
In the end, the US Open champion was mightily relieved to come through the most severe examination of his title credentials so far.
“If I didn’t win the fourth set I would have been in a tough mental shape,” he admitted.
French veteran Alize Cornet made the quarter-finals of a Slam for the first time in her long career. — AFP.
Online Reporter