So now I thought I would do some split posts for a change about the men's and ladies quarter finals matches, as this post will focus on the matches from Day 9, which saw the first leg of QFs get under way, so let's have a closer look at them....
OK so ladies first, starting with Agnieszka Radwanska, the world no.4, who took on the world no.6, Li Na, in a duel to reach the last four. Aga came into this match on a 13 match winning streak, in which she has not even dropped a set this year either! However this all changed when she played the Chinese No.1, as Li Na took a very tight first set, and in the 2nd, Li Na continued to dominate the proceedings by breaking Aga twice to win the match in 7-5, 6-3 to land her second semi final in Melbourne. This was quite an impressive result for Li Na, who has really been on form this year so far, with the help of her new coach (her former one was her husband, whom apparently got dogs abuse from her!) Carlos Rodriguez, who was the former coach of Justine Henin. And Li Na will be set to take on her next opponent, who I will cover in the next paragrarph...
The next match was between two Ruskies, Maria Sharapova (well she's American really isn't she???) and Ekaterina Makarova, which looked like a potentially interesting encounter. However Maria continued her incredible form by blasting her way past the Russian in just over an hour, and breaking Makarova twice in each set to make what must rank as her easiest ever passage to the semi finals of a grand slam ever (or of all time!) with a crushing 6-2, 6-2 win. This was quite a performance from Maria who has now only conceeded a mere nine games to reach the semis, and she never looked threatened at all during the match, despite Makarova showing a few signs of promise in the first few games.
However and I hate to sound like I'm bashing her, but I do have to say I am a bit put off by Sharapova these days, as I just can't quite go her snooty arrogance, and she is very much a cold fish in the press, as she has said some quite arrogant things at times. I also think in all honesty her game isn't that exciting to watch either as she just basically hits the ball as hard as she can, and it either goes in or not, and all we pretty much get from Sharapova is baseline rallies and blasting winners of any kind she can get and that's about it, there's no plan B, not to mention the 100db shreiking she does on court all the time (I'm surprised she event has a voice left!). But despite the disappointment of how massively one sided her matches have been so far in Melbourne, her next match promises to be her first big test as she will play Li Na, who gave her a really tight close match in Rome last year, so expect this to be a tough one, but I can still see Sharapova win it to reach her 2nd consecutive final.
Anyway so onto the men, starting with what was the match of the day between two Spaniards David Ferrer and Nicolas Almagro, who fought it out for a place in the men's last four. While the match was a bit erratic on quality it was definitely one of the matches of the tournament so far, and it saw Almagro, who had never beaten Ferrer in their previous meetings, with a great chance of beating his fellow Spaniard, as he took a two sets to love lead. And in the 3rd set, Almagro went a break up to serve for the match at 5-4, but he couldn't take his chances as Ferrer broke back, who went on to break and win the 3rd set. In the 4th set it was more see-saw play and Almagro had his chances to close out the match again going up a break at 5-4, with Ferrer breaking back to make it 5-5, and breaking Ferrer again to make 6-5. But Ferrer's tenacity was unnerving as he fought to make it to a tiebreak, where Ferrer finally stamped his authority by levelling the match at 2 sets all. After this unfortunately for Almagro, who started suffering from cramp, Ferrer dominated the 5th and broke twice to seal his place in his 2nd semi final in Melbourne, with a score of 4-6, 4-6, 7-5, 7-6, 6-2.
Although I haven't seen it properly this was quite a match from both men and it once again shows just how good a player David Ferrer really is, and why he is in the top 5 in the sport just now. It was a pity for Almagro though who had several chances to close out the match in the 3rd and 4th sets, but in the end it was Ferrer who had that bit more belief and determination to see it through. As for Ferrer well he will go on to face one of the two men in the next match I'll discuss...
Which was between the World No.1, Novak Djokovic and World No.6, Tomas Berdych, and with Djokovic having been out on court for over 5 hours in that his epic 4th round match with Stan Wawrinka, Berdych might have had a good chance here to cause an upset. However Nole turned out to be in fine form and looked fresh as a daisy as he moved quickly to take the first set. In the 2nd set Berdych fought back and broke to level the match at a set all, but again in the 3rd, Novak seized the initiative quickly and went a double break up to take a 2 sets to 1 lead. And in the 4th Nole wasted little time in breaking Berdy, and despite some resistance at 5-4 from Berdych, Novak served it out to seal his semi final place with a scoreline of 6-1, 4-6, 6-1, 6-4.
This was a pretty easy victory for Novak after having endured such a war of attrition against Wawrinka, his win here was just what he would have ordered from his local pharmacist. The match itself was nothing too much to write home about, and Berdych for the most part was outplayed by Nole, although there were some good moments here and there. And next for Nole will be Ferrer who he will be meeting in their second consecutive grand slam semi final as they met at the US Open semis last year as well. And while I'm sure Ferrer will give Novak the runaround for a while, I can see Novak reach his third consecutive Melbourne final with realtive ease, in what might be a tight 3 or 4 set victory.
So that's it for the first leg of the quarter final matches, more will follow tomorrow once the vote is in on the next lot. As tomorrow we will have starting with the ladies, Victoria Azarenka take on Svetlana Kuznetsova, followed by Serena Williams who will play the talented and upcoming young American, Sloane Stephens. So both of these promise to be good matches, and I'm particularly looking forward to Serena's match up with Stephens, as it will be interesting to see how the young American get's on with the mighty Williams.
And for the men we have two very intruiging matches, first up Andy Murray will take on the in form Frenchman, Jeremy Chardy, who beat Andy in their previous meeting last year, so it will be a real test for Andy, but hopefully one he will pass. And in what could be the match of the day, and is the night match, we will have Roger Federer taking on Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, and depending how it goes we might just see an upset, or even maybe two if Chardy plays his cards right! However if there is one upset I hope its Roger's as I would much rather see Andy get through any day, and that way he will have a good chance of reaching the final with a possible showdown with Novak. How good would that be????? But first things first, we'll see how the matches go.
Right that's it for now. More coming up at you soon!
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