Australian Open: Djokovic strolls, Williams sisters fight to progress

Quarter-final berths secured by Raonic, Wawrinka and Nishikori as well.

MELBOURNE: A dominant Novak Djokovic swept into the Australian Open last eight yesterday as the Williams sisters displayed fighting qualities to stay alive, but the tournament ended for two-time champion Victoria Azarenka.

“It’s a positive feeling. I haven’t dropped a set and I’m in the quarter-finals,” said Djokovic. “There are a few things I think I can do better.”

The Serbian top seed was always in charge against unseeded Gilles Muller from Luxembourg, dictating terms in a testing 6-4, 7-5, 7-5 work-out to reach his eighth consecutive quarter-final at Melbourne Park.

He will now play big-serving Canadian eighth seed Milos Raonic as he bids for a fifth Australian crown and an eighth Grand Slam title.

Raonic snuffed out the challenge of Spanish 12th seed Feliciano Lopez in five tough sets.



Women world number one Serena Williams battled back from a set down in a tense match against Spain’s Garbine Muguruza to win 2-6, 6-3, 6-2; staying on track for a 19th Grand Slam title and her sixth in Melbourne.

“I didn’t start out so well and she [Muguruza] did everything she needed to do in the first set,” said Serena, who can lose her top ranking if she fails to win the tournament and Maria Sharapova does so.

She will now face last year’s finalist Dominika Cibulkova, the 11th seeded Slovak who ended Azarenka’s comeback from injury in three tight sets.

Cibulkova, who lost in the 2014 title decider to Li Na, went into her match as an underdog against Azarenka, who had beaten her seven times in their nine previous meetings.

But she said her self-belief blossomed as she stepped back onto the Rod Laver Arena, the scene of her best Grand Slam performance.

“I just walked on the court and all the memories came to my mind and I was just thinking ‘I’m a great player, I can do it, I just have to believe in myself’,” she said.

Meanwhile, Serena’s elder sister Venus’ late-career renaissance gathered pace as she rolled back the years to thump Polish sixth seed Agnieszka Radwanska 6-3, 2-6, 6-1. She is now 9-0 for the season after winning the Auckland Classic.

Defending champ Wawrinka sails through

Defending champion Stan Wawrinka ensured his passage by winning a thrilling fourth-set tiebreaker to down Spain’s tenacious Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 7-6 (7/2), 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (10/8).

He now plays Japanese superstar Kei Nishikori, who was a class above dogged Spanish baseliner David Ferrer, easing through 6-3, 6-3, 6-3.

“He’s a tough player. He improved a lot last year,” said Wawrinka of Nishikori.

Meanwhile, former Australian champion Lindsay Davenport’s protégé Madison Keys made her first Grand Slam quarter-final, winning an all-American clash with Madison Brengle 6-2, 6-4.

The unseeded world number 35, just 19, has long been touted as the rising star of American tennis and will next play Venus, the 18th seed.

Venus has been keeping tabs on Keys’ progress for years and noted that “she started watching me when she was in diapers”.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 27^th, 2015.

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