Ok so now we are into the second leg of the 4th round matches which sees the completion of the set up for the mens and ladies quarter finals. So let's have a look at them....
Starting with the ladies we had Caroline Wozniacki up first batting against Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia, who has returned to form lately, and she won their previous meeting in Sydney earlier this year (well ok two weeks ago!). And unfortunately for Caroline the result was the same as the Russian had found just enough in the end to win through, although it was by far the most competitive match of the day in the ladies draw, as the two of them battled it out for nearly 2 hours and 30 minutes. But I have to say I was really disapponted that Caroline lost the match, as I was really hoping to see her reach the quarter finals and play Victoria Azarenka, which I thought would have been a really good match up, but it wasn't to be unfortunately. Which brings me onto Azarenka's match which was with another Russian, Elena Vesnina, but Vika had little trouble is getting past her, as she powered past Vesnina with an emphatic straight set victory of 6-1, 6-1, and despite having blip in her match with Jamie Hampton, Victoria has been in pretty good form so far.
Now onto Serena Williams who was up against Maria Kirilenko, and this could have been Serena's first test of the tournament, however once again I was proved wrong, as Kirilenko had no answer whatsoever for Serena's game. Serena powered her way past Kirilenko in the first set breaking twice, and in the 2nd set Kirilenko was nowhere to be seen on the scoreboard, as Serena raced to the finish line with yet another massively one sided win with a score of 6-2, 6-0. I really do have to say that while she is one of the great players in the game, there is nothing more boring than watching Serena Williams demolish an opponent in a tennis match, and it happens all too often, as more often than not you wish someone could give just give her a match. However her next opponent might just be capable of that who is Sloane Stephens who has made her first grand slam quarter final, after beating Bojana Jovanovski from Serbia in 3 sets. Sloane also gave Serena a decent match in their previous meeting in Brisbane this year and it might be possible that she can do the same this time, so let's hope its a good one, as it has to be said alot of the ladies matches have been pretty underwhelming so far. But that might all change as we progress into the quarter finals as things are bound to get that bit tougher, well perhaps not for Serena, but we'll see!
So now onto the men's matches, and we'll start off with an all French clash between Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Richard Gasquet, which looked like a real tough un. Tsonga was the better player though and drop only one set to reach his third quarter final at the Australian open in 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, and so far he is looking in very good form, so he will be tough to stop. Next up was Jeremy Chardy another French man (they have done well this year!) who was pitted against the Italian and 25th seed, Andreas Seppi. And after losing the first set, Chardy took control of the match and dismissed Seppi in 5-7, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 to reach his first grand slam quarter final, and he is looking in dangerous form.
Which brings me onto Andy Murray, who so far in the tournament has yet to drop a set, and he played Gilles Simon, who was physically struggling after his long match against Gael Monfils in the 3rd round. And right enough it turned out that Simon was no match for Andy in his weak state, and he frequently called for the trainer throughout the match, and Andy had him on the move to keep the points short, and in just over 1 hour and 30 minutes, Andy reached the quarter finals with a straight forward 6-3, 6-1, 6-3 win. This was not really much of a match and it was a pity for Simon that he couldn't get into it a bit more, as he was struggling with his movement. But at least for Andy he is into another quarter final (his 9th consecutive one I think!) of a major, despite the fact he wasn't at his best today. However things don't get any easier from here and he will be up against Jeremy Chardy next, who beat him last year in Cincinnati, so Andy will need to up his game to reach the semi final. Hopefully however Andy can use his more extensive experience in the latter stages of the majors to come through this one in 4 or 5 sets, and hopefully he will, but Chardy will be a threat, so Andy will need to be on form to get past him, especially as Chardy has already beaten 3 seeded players, one of them being Del Potro. So fingers crossed!
And the final match of the day on Rod Laver arena was Roger Federer who up against Milos Raonic, the huge serving Canadian who had given Roger some really tight close matches in their previous meetings. But this time Roger came more prepared as Raonic despite getting off to a solid start on serve, soon dropped serve at 4-5 to lose the opening set. In the 2nd, things went by serve as Raonic pushed Federer to a tiebreak, but in the breaker Federer took control again and took the 2 set lead. And in the 3rd Roger made short work of the young Canadian who he broke twice, and saw Federer serve out with ease to reach his 35th grand slam quarter final (not bad at all!) in 6-4, 7-6, 6-2.
It was a bit of a letdown this match as I was hoping Raonic would at least push it to a 4th set, but apart from his serve, there wasn't a great deal else to the Canadian's game, as he wasn't the best returner, and each rally couldn't have been more than 8 or 10 shots, with Federer winning the majority of them, and the big lad had to keep serving well to stay in the match. So while Raonic is a top player if he wants to reach the top 10 or 5, for me he would really need to work on his return game and add a few more dimensions to his game. As for Roger well there is no doubt that he is in top form and also is yet to drop a set at the tournament and I think it would be fair to say that he can reach the final in Melbourne, unless Andy can find something special if they meet in the semis. But that lies ahead of us. Up next for Roger is Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who took out Richard Gasquet, and that will be Roger's first big test, as I'm sure Tsonga will make life difficult for him. Although in their last meeting in a major, Federer whitewashed Tsonga at the US Open two years ago, but let's not forget that Tsonga also beat Roger in 5 sets at Wimbledon that year as well, so Tsonga still remains a big threat to him, and he has the firepower and the game to take out anyone. So it promises to be quite a match.
So that's it for the 4th round matches, it was a pretty underwhelming day all round to be honest, and it has to be said the Australian open has been a bit hit and miss so far this year. But hopefully the matches will improve in quality and competitiveness as we reach the latter stages of the first major of the season. And tomorrow on the ladies we will have Sharapova up against her compatriot Ekaterina Makarova (who I could swear sounds Asian and instead of Russian!) and Agnieszka Radwanska will be playing Li Na, so hopefully they will be good. And in the men's we have Novak Djokovic take on Tomas Berdych, which could be a cracker, that's assuming Novak has enough in the tank to win, but you can never underestimate Nole and I do think he will win. Also in the men's there will be an all Spanish clash between David Ferrer and Nicolas Almagro, but Almagro has never beaten Ferrer, so we will see how that pans out.
Right so that's it for now. More to follow on the quarter finals later on.
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