MELBOURNE: Stefanos Tsitsipas battled into the Australian Open’s final 8 on Sunday however girls’s best seed Iga Swiatek and a tearful Coco Gauff become the newest big-name sufferers. Swiatek’s defeat to Elena Rybakina made it the primary Grand Slam because the Open generation started in 1968 to lose the highest two seeds in each the lads’s and girls’s attracts ahead of the quarterfinals.
That left Greece’s Tsitsipas because the best possible final males’s seed at 3, and he have shyed away from the destiny of Rafael Nadal and Casper Ruud with a dogged victory over Jannik Sinner. Tsitsipas, who’s pursuing a primary main crown, defeated the Italian fifteenth seed 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 6-3 to arrange a quarter-final with the unseeded Jiri Lehecka.
Czech international quantity 71 Lehecka defeated 6th seed Felix Auger-Aliassime in 4 units in but some other marvel end result. The 21-year-old Lehecka was once knocked out within the first spherical on the 4 majors final 12 months however was once too scorching for the Canadian, successful 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7/2), 7-6 (7/3). Large-killer Sebastian Korda surged right into a maiden Grand Slam quarter-final and faces 18th-seeded Karen Khachanov of Russia.
The American twenty ninth seed got here via a rollercoaster 10-point deciding tiebreak to overcome tenth seed Hubert Hurkacz 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, 1-6, 7-6 (10/7). Korda, whose father Petr received the name in 1998, produced some of the performances of his occupation to disappointed two-time Australian Open finalist Daniil Medvedev within the 3rd spherical.
Coco’s tears
The ladies’s draw additionally has an unfamiliar glance, after an afternoon of shocks. Wimbledon champion Rybakina swept previous the 2022 French and US Open winner Swiatek 6-4, 6-4 in 1hr 29min at a shocked Rod Laver Enviornment. Moscow-born Kazakh Rybakina, seeded 22, strikes directly to a last-eight come across with Jelena Ostapenko. International primary and scorching favourite Swiatek admitted Rybakina deserved to win. She follows 2nd seed Ons Jabeur out the Melbourne go out door, the Tunisian having long gone out in the second one spherical in some other marvel.
Latvian seventeenth seed Ostapenko equipped the second one disappointed of a loopy little while by way of knocking out 7th seed Gauff 7-5, 6-3 on neighboring Margaret Courtroom Enviornment. The 18-year-old American broke down in tears all the way through an emotional post-match press convention. She were favourite to defeat Ostapenko, the 2017 French Open winner.
However the 25-year-old Ostapenko was once at all times in keep an eye on to make certain that Gauff will have to wait a minimum of somewhat longer for a primary main name. Gauff informed newshounds it was once a “little bit irritating”, then her voice started to crack and the tears flowed. There have been no tears for Jessica Pegula alternatively, the American 3rd seed powering into the final 8 with a 7-5, 6-2 win over former French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova. Pegula, now the name favourite, faces two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka or unseeded Zhu Lin of China. – AFP