 | « Back to article | Print this article |
Images from matches played on Day 5 at the Australian Open in Melbourne Park on Friday
Rafael Nadal cruised into the fourth round of the Australian Open with a straight sets win over Damir Dzumhur.
The top seed Spaniard crushed the Bosnian 6-1, 6-3, 6-1.
Melbourne's heatwave had relented by the time the Nadal walked on Margaret Court Arena, but the Spaniard was on fire as he battered the 28th seed into submission.
The sole blemish was a dropped service game early in the second set but it only briefly slowed his charge.
Nadal finished the job in one hour 50 minutes to reach the last 16 here for the 11th time where he will face Argentina's Diego Schwartzman.
Kyrgios takes down idol Tsonga to reach fourth round
Nick Kyrgios toppled his childhood idol Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in a tense clash to reach the fourth round of the Australian Open on Friday and raise home fans' hopes of a first men's champion in 42 years.
Away from the raucous atmosphere of his favoured Hisense Arena, the tempestuous Australian showed impressive composure in the tiebreaks to beat former finalist Tsonga 7-6(5), 4-6, 7-6(6), 7-6(5) under the lights of Rod Laver Arena.
Tsonga, the 15th seed, had looked primed to take the fight into a fifth set when he stormed to a 4-1 lead in the final tiebreak, but Kyrgios roared back to seal it when the Frenchman hammered the ball into the net on the first match point.
Kyrgios will next face third seed Grigor Dimitrov for a place in the quarter-finals, the man he beat in the last four of the Brisbane International this month.
"It was amazing, I'd never won a match on this court coming here," Kyrgios said in the post-match interview on court.
"Playing Jo, obviously I was very nervous. I was just happy to get through and you guys were amazing tonight."
Ostapenko sunk by Kontaveit in Baltic battle
French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko's Australian Open hopes ended as the seventh seed was beaten 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 by Anett Kontaveit in a battle of the Baltic.
Latvian Ostapenko produced her usual brand of gung-ho tennis but Estonian Kontaveit weathered the storm to take her place in the fourth round in Melbourne for the first time.
Ostapenko, playing with a heavily bandaged thigh, dominated the second set but was unable to sustain her level.
The players traded breaks early in the deciding set but the 22-year-old Kontaveit outlasted her opponent in marathon seventh game, thumping a weak second serve for a backhand winner on her fifth break point to seize the advantage again.
After holding serve, 32nd seed Kontaveit sealed victory when an Ostapenko forehand thumped into the net.
Her reward is a fourth round tie against unseeded Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro who got the better of Kaia Kanepi in three sets.
Angry Wozniacki battles past Bertens after tantrum
Second seed Caroline Wozniacki overcame a late temper tantrum to forge into the fourth round with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Kiki Bertens.
Serving for the match at 5-3 under the lights of Rod Laver Arena, the former world number one harangued the chair umpire when a line call went against her and pounded her racquet into the blue hardcourt when Bertens saved a second match point.
Bertens, seeded 30th, cancelled out a third match point with a ripping return down the line but Wozniacki sealed the fourth with a huge serve that the Dutchwoman could only fire long.
In her previous match, Wozniacki had to save two match points on an epic comeback from 5-1 down in the third set against Croatian Jana Fett, so she was thrilled to avoid another drawn-out battle against Bertens.
"Right now I'm playing with house money," the Dane, a semi-finalist at Melbourne Park in 2011, said in her post-match interview on court.
"Right now I've got nothing to lose ... I got a second chance and I'm going to try to take it and see how far I can go."
Wozniacki will meet Slovakian 19th seed Magdalena Rybarikova for a place in the quarter-finals
Third seed Grigor Dimitrov survived a tricky test in fierce heat against feisty young Russian Andrey Rublev to reach the fourth round of the Australian Open on Friday.
The 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory looked comfortable enough for the 26-year-old but it was far from plain sailing on Rod Laver Arena against the 30th seed who knocked him out of last year's US Open in straight sets.
Dimitrov, a semi-finalist last year, was a set and a break to the good but errors began to creep into his game and he surrendered the initiative as Rublev broke twice to level the match and then moved a break ahead in the third set.
Bulgarian Dimitrov upped his game to avert the danger though and recovered to take the third set.
After snatching the Rublev serve to take a 5-4 lead in the fourth, Dimitrov had to save a break point before claiming victory when he raced forward to ram home a forehand winner.
"These are the most important matches for me, when certain things are not working for me and I find a way," he said on court.
"He's a good player. He beat me at the US Open so I knew what to expect and what I had to do.
"The heat didn't scare me at all today, that's fine. I just needed to stay calm and composed ... go with the flow."
Ruthless fourth seed Elina Svitolina gave 15-year-old compatriot Marta Kostyuk a 59-minute lesson in grand slam tennis to reach the fourth round of the Australia Open with a 6-2, 6-2 victory in searing heat.
Qualifier Kostyuk became the youngest player to reach the third round of a grand slam in over 20 years on Wednesday but her dream run was brought to a shuddering halt by her fellow Ukrainian on Rod Laver Arena.
The teenager made an excellent start by breaking Svitolina in the first game of the match but from then on it was pretty much all one-way traffic as the in-form World No 4 set up a meeting with Czech qualifier Denisa Allertova.
Svitolina, showing no desire to spend a minute longer in the heat than necessary and no sign of the injury issues she reported after her second round match, progressed when Kostyuk served up her ninth double fault of the contest.
Edmund outlasts Basilashvili in brutal heat
Britain's Kyle Edmund overcame Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili and temperatures well above 100 degrees Fahrenheit in a brutal three-and-a-half hour contest to reach the fourth round of the Australian Open for the first time on Friday.
The 23-year-old Yorkshireman, the only Briton in the men's draw in the absence of Andy Murray, mixed 70 winners with 68 unforced errors to prevail 7-6(0), 3-6, 4-6, 6-0, 7-5 in a topsy-turvy contest on court two.
The match turned when world number 49 Edmund, having lost the second and third sets, outlasted Basilashvili in an extraordinary 20-minute game featuring 15 deuces to take a 2-0 lead at the start of the fourth.
The deciding set went with serve until two winners and a Basilashvili double fault gave Edmund his 27th break point, which he converted to set up a fourth round clash against Ivo Karlovic or Andreas Seppi.
Birthday girl Martic reaches last 16 in Melbourne
Croatia's Petra Martic celebrated her 26th birthday in style by reaching the fourth round of the Australian Open on Friday.
The World No 81 beat Thailand's Luksika Kumkhum 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 to set up a clash with unseeded Belgian Elise Mertens.
Twelve months ago Martic was ranked 264 after a back injury but she has now reached the last 16 of three of the last four grand slams and hopes to go even further.
"I think at every grand slam it opens up sooner or later. I think the competition is so high, anybody can beat anybody. I think anybody can win this tournament.
"I think it's great to see, because it's very exciting, and, you know, you can't say who's gonna win the tournament, who's gonna win the semis.
"It's pretty open, and I think I'm one of those girls that are kind of not expected to be here but am still there."
