The top-seeded Djokovic struggled with his game but eventually outlasted the French hitting wall and No. 14 seed Gilles Simon 6-3, 6-7(1), 6-4, 4-6, 6-3. But Federer was in no mood to hang around in the evening’s final match, watched by Australian great Rod Laver in the arena that bears his name.
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With the win, Djokovic has now set up a quarterfinal clash with seventh-seed Kei Nishikori, who claimed 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 triumph over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France in the fourth round.
When the member of the crowd repeated “no more drop-shots”, the Serb shrugged and replied: “I hate to say it, but you’re absolutely right”.
Berdych, the sixth seed, beat Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut, the No. 24 seed, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 1-6, 6-3.
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) – In the shadows of a sporting shrine where centuries are usually celebrated, Novak Djokovic reached an unprecedented 100 that took a touch of the shine off his streak of reaching the quarterfinals for a 27th consecutive Grand Slam.
Novak Djokovic was nowhere near his brilliant best, but came through a marathon five-setter to beat Gilles Simon in the fourth round of the Australian Open, before Roger Federer sailed into the quarter-finals at a canter.
Djokovic was wasteful, error-prone – he had 100 unforced errors – and uncharacteristically unreliable from the baseline, from which he won 113 of 244 points, but he still reached a ninth straight Australian Open quarter-final. It’s not a very pleasant feeling when you’re not playing well.
“I knew what was expecting me on the court, but I honestly didn’t expect to make this many unforced errors”. “I’ve had worse situations where I had much less time to recover after long matches, so I’m sure I’ll be fine”, the 10-times grand slam champion said.
Simon is not a player with the weapons to hit his opponents off the court, but his defensive skills can make him a nightmare for even the very best on an off-day.
The Serb made an unholy amount of unforced errors by his lofty standards but raised his level in the final set to seal his spot in the last eight.
The 17-times grand slam champion roared through the first set in 21 minutes as he conceded just two points on his own serve and broke the Belgian twice. The error count was largely testament to Simon’s dogged scrambling and counter-punching style, but Djokovic also shot himself in the foot repeatedly with a string of botched dropshots.
“Today was one of the best matches I’ve had this week”, said 28-year-old Nishikori, a US Open finalist in 2014.
Maria Sharapova (Rus) bt Belinda Bencic (Sui) 7-5 7-5, Serena Williams (USA) bt Margarita Gasparyan (Rus) 6-2 6-1, Agnieszka Radwanska (Pol) bt Anna-Lena Friedsam (Ger) 6-7 (6-8) 6-1 7-5, Carla Suarez (Esp) bt Daria Gavrilova (Aus) 0-6 6-3 6-2. “So that’s just been my thing”, she said. “It’s a good one so far, I’ve got past the first week and now all the focus is on the second week”, said the Czech. Nishikori has lost in the quarterfinals of a grand slam three times and has made it to the semifinals just once.
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“It’s going to be tough”.
