Right ok so now its time for the third of my posts (I've split these into two sub-parts because of the ladies and men coverage for each individual post) on the Australian Open, which will cover the days 5, 6 and 7 of the ladies singles event. So let's give them a look....
OK so to start with day 5 and Serena Williams was first on Rod Laver arena where she took on the Slovak Daniella Hantuchova who she had little trouble in dispatching in the blazing heat as she defeated her with a convincing 6-3, 6-3 to reach the 4th round. After that we had the surprise of the tournament so far with the Aussie, Casey Dellacqua who defeated Zheng Jie of China with a straight sets win of 6-2, 6-4. Next up was Ana Invanovic against Sam Stosur, who is the Aussie No.1 player, however Sam didn't fare so well against Ivanovic, despite taking the first set on a breaker, Ana soon levelled and broke Sam twice in the 3rd set to reach the 4th round and end Sam's hope of winning her home title with a 6-7, 6-4, 6-2 scoreline. Li Na on the other hand survived a real scare as she faced the Czeck player, Lucie Safarova, who had two match points against the Chinese player in the 2nd set, however Li Na turned it around to win the 2nd set breaker and she went on to win the match in the 3rd in 1-6, 7-6, 6-3 keeping her hopes alive of reaching a 3rd final in Melbourne.
And quickly to summarise the other matches of the day:
Angelique Kerber took down the American player, Alison Riske, whom she beat in straight sets 6-3, 6-4 to also reach the 4th round.
Flavia Pennetta also reached the 4th round after she defeated the German player, Mona Barthel in straight sets as well in 6-1, 7-5.
Moving right on to Day 6 the action started with Maria Sharapova who took to the court to play the French player, Alize Cornet, with whom she had to withstand a second set fightback before she closed out the match in straight sets in 6-1, 7-6. And in one of the bigger upsets of the tournament so far we had Caroline Wozniack suffer an early defeat to the Spanish player Gabrine Muguruza, who came from a set down to stun the former World No.1 in 4-6, 7-5, 6-3. This sees Caroline's poor run of form at the grand slams continue, which is a troubling sign as again there too many players that can hit through her counterpunching defensive style, which means at some point Caroline will somehow need to step up her game to go any deeper in the big events, but whether she can or not remains to be seen. The defending champion however, Victoria Azarenka had little trouble in getting past her opponent Yvonne Meusburger, whom she made burger meat of as she demolished the Austrian player, conceding just one game with a crushing 6-1, 6-0 win. And Agnieszka Radwanska had a stern test in getting past the Russian player, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova as she battled from a set down to win in 5-7, 6-2, 6-2.
And to summarise the round up of the other matches of the day:
Jelena Jankovic downed the Japense player Kurumi Nara with a straight set 6-4, 7-5 score to reach the 4th round, which shows Jelena's continued return of form after a two year dip out of the top ten.
Dominika Cibulkova also made it through to the last 16 after she destroyed the Spaniard Carla Suarez-Navarro by dropping just one game, 6-1, 6-0.
And lastly Sloane Stephens continued to make her impression at the Australian open after she defeated Elina Svitolina in 6-4, 7-5.
So we go onto Day 7 and match play kicked off with Flavia Pennetta showing her fine run of form at the grand slams continue as she defeated Angelique Kerber in a tough three setter to reach the quarter finals with an impressive and hard fought 6-1, 4-6, 7-5 victory. Then we had the up and coming Canadian player, Eugenie Bouchard who announced her arrival on the WTA tour last year and here she continued her impressive form as she defeated Casey Dellacqua to end Australia's interest in the singles for both the men's and ladies as the Canadian reached her first major quarter final with a 6-7, 6-2, 6-0 victory. Li Na also made it through and she made short work of Ekaterina Makarova, who has had a reputation of upsets at the Aussie open, however it wasn't to be as Li Na had more than enough for her as she crushed the Russian in 6-2, 6-0.
And now for the upset of the day and indeed the tournament as Serena Williams took on Ana Ivanovic, who up until this match had never even taken a set off Serena. But this time Ana looked to defy the odds as Serena, who appeared to be suffering with a back problem, who took the first set, saw Ana take her first ever set off the American to take the match to a decider. And in the decider it was Ana who pulled the mother off all upsets as she stunned Serena and won the match in 4-6, 6-3, 6-3. This was definitely a big surprise which I'm sure most people didn't see coming, however as Serena revealed she has been suffering with a back injury and it was deinitely a big contributing factory in the outcome of the match. But nonetheless Ann played a terrific match against Serena and she thoroughly deserves her place in the quarter finals. And with Serena gone, Victoria Azarenka is now the top seed and has the best chance of defending her title, however the draw has opened up considerably and other players will have their chances such as Li Na and Ivanovic, but for me Vika still remains the favourite in Serena's absence, but we'll see.
Right that's it for the women, next up is the men's....
Bye for now and see you in a wee while.
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