Right, so now I get onto the 2nd week of the Australian open and this post contains another big upset, which I will get to in just a tick.
So let's crack and see how the 2nd week of the Australian open has panned out so far up until the quarter final matches.
2nd WEEK
So to kick off with a real shock surprise we had the World No.1, Andy Murray, take on the German player, Mischa Zverev who is the older brother of the notable younger, Alexander Zverev. Now on paper this was a match that heavily favoured Andy given that he is the top seed in the event and with Novak Djokovic now out, he looked to be the hot favourite to win the title.
However, Zverev had other ideas in mind as he really imposed his aggressive serve and volley game on Andy, totally taking the world's best player out of his rythyhm that saw the German take the first set. In the 2nd set however, Andy soon fought back as he managed to break Mischa to level the match and from here you would assume that things would come up good for the World No.1. However that's not how the script went here as Mischa was not done yet and he imposed his game even further on Andy and he soon broke him twice to take a two sets to one lead. And in the final set, a costly break saw the world's best player toppled out of the Australian open as Mischa Zverev pulled off a stunning upset that saw him reach his first ever major quarter final with a 7-5 5-7, 6-2, 6-4 win.
Well I'm sure that no one would have ever predicted this result, especially given the consistent record Andy has had at the Australian open for the last seven years, he has never failed to reach the quarter finals or better at the event. And this year with Novak absent, Andy really looked like he had a strong chance of winning his first ever title in Melbourne after five unsuccessful attempts in finals. Unfortunately however it was not to be and Andy will just have to wait until next year before he has a chance again to compete for the slam that has forever eluded him. But all credit to Zverev, who played an unbelievable match to stun Andy Murray and put him out of the tournament, it showed that Alexander's older brother is one to watch out for aswell.
As for the other seeds, Roger Federer by contrast continued his good form as he took on the 5th seed, Kei Nishikori in a thrilling 4th round match, which saw Roger being handed his first stern test of the tournament. And Kei took the opening set on a tiebreak (although he was 5-2 up at one point!) before Roger started his fightback and levelled the match and went on to grab a two sets to one lead. In the 4th set however, Kei showed his mettle and broke Roger and he went on to level the match as play went into a 5th. However in the 5th set, Kei's fitness started to fade as he suffered back problems, which let Rog break him and although Kei valiantly fought on to keep things to the single break, Roger served out the match with ease as he took an impressive victory to reach the quarter finals with a 6-7, 6-4, 6-1, 4-6, 6-3 scoreline.
Roger would then go on to face Andy Murray's conqueror, Mischa Zverev in the quarter finals and as you would expect, the German was no match whatsoever for Rog as when it came to playing an aggressive game of serve and volley, two could play that game and Rog played it way better than Zverev did! So in short, Roger wasted little time in getting past Zverev as he sealed a straight set victory in just over 1 hour and 30 minutes to reach the semi finals, which now sees him as a strong contender to win this title.
Next up is Rafael Nadal who also showed very good form against the unpredictable but entertaining, Gael Monfils as the two of them battled it out for a place in the last eight. And Rafa got off to a fast start as he soon broke an inconsistent Monfils in the first two sets to grab the two sets to love lead. However in the 3rd, Gael mounted a fightback as he managed to break Rafa and serve out for the 3rd set to keep himself alive in the match. And in the 4th set, Monfils continued his hot form as he broke Rafa again, however it wasn't long before Monfils's errors crept in and prevented him holding the break and Rafa broke back. And from here Rafa went on to seal the match with a break of his own as the Frenchman captiulated on his serve, handing Rafa a place in the quarter finals after an entertaining four set 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 win. And this was Rafa's first quarter final at a grand slam in nearly two years with his last being the French Open in 2015.
Stan Wawrinka also continued his good run of form as he took on Andres Seppi in the 4th round as the two of them battled it out. However in the end it was Stan that showed his class as he beat Seppi in three tight tiebreak sets to reach the last eight, 7-6, 7-6, 7-6. And Stan went on to show his good form yet again in the quarter finals as he faced Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (who had put out Dan Evans in the 4th round) and he beat his old rival again in straight sets with an impressive 7-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory.
This now means we will be treated to an all Swiss semi final between Roger and Stan and its going to be fun guessing as to who will come out on top but for now I will leave my prediction aside for another post.
Milos Raonic, who is now the highest remaining seed in the tournament (the 3rd seed) also has managed a good run so far in the Australian open (sorry forgot to mention him in the first part!) as he beat Dustin Brown and Gilles Muller both in straight sets and then Gilles Simon in four sets to reach the 2nd week. In the 2nd week he has again played well to beat Roberto Bautista-Agut, despite suffering from a flu bug, Raonic still managed to fight his way past the B-Agut in four sets. This sets up a highly anticipated clash now with Rafa for a place in the semi finals.
David Goffin next up showed that he is now a player to be reckoned with as he took on one of his main rivals, Dominic Thiem for a place in the quarter finals but it was Goffin this time that came out on top as he beat Thiem in four sets to reach his first quarter final in Melbourne.
And last of all, Grigor Dimitrov faced Novak Djokovic's conqueror, Denis Istomin, in the last 16 as the two of them fought it out for the last eight. However injury started to hamper Istomin after he made a bright start by taking the first set, Dimitrov soon overtook him and nabbed the next three sets as Istomin started to fight, fighting a leg injury. This saw Grigor reach his first slam quarter final in three years as he beat Istomin in 2-6, 7-6, 6-2, 6-1 to reach the last eight and play David Goffin.
REMAINING QUARTER FINAL PREDICTIONS
Right well so far we are still to play the last two quarter final matches between Rafa and Raonic and Dimitrov and Goffin so I will quickly mention how I see them going....
Nadal vs Raonic
Well for this one its tough to call given that both men have split their wins so far this year, although one of them was unofficial as Rafa beat Raonic in an exhibition event at Abu Dhabi (which doesn't really count) and Raonic officially beat Rafa in Brisbane.
However one of the deciding factors here for me could come down to fitness as Rafa, despite any of last year's fitness concerns over his wrist, so far has shown none of that, so I think in this match he should still be fine. Raonic however has suffered form a flu bug lately and this could hamper his movement and game against a seasoned veteran and all time great like Rafa, which could prove costly as surely the Canadian will need to be 100 percent to really beat Rafa here.
So for this reason alone I will go with Rafa, also not to mention that Rafa has the big match advantage over Raonic and when push comes to shove Rafa will show his grit and come through this one in four tight sets.
Dimitrov vs Goffin
This match is a bit tough to call even though Dimitrov has the emphatic lead in their head to head, i.e. he has never lost to Goffin and holds a commanding 4-0 lead over him. But Goffin is a much improved player now so I think this could be a very even match and one that could really go either way and it would easy to suppose that Grigor will come away with yet another win here but it might not necessarily be the case.
Regardless of that however I still would say that Dimitrov might come out ontop here once again as he really has looked very solid for the most of this tournament and his 4-0 lead over Goffin should help him out here. Dimitrov also has a bit more height on Goffin and an extra bit of firepower and a bigger serve too, so this should count towards another Grigor victory. However it shouldn't be easy and I think this is one that could easily go five sets with Grigor eventually winning it to reach his maiden Melbourne semi final.
Right, so that's it for now and I will be back on here once the semi finals are finished and we know who is in the final.
Till the next one its bye for now!
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