Serena Williams of the United States walks from the court after winning her fourth round match against Margarita Gasparyan of Russian Federation at the Australian Open tennis championships in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, Jan. 24, 2016.
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Novak Djokovic called his win over Gilles Simon a “match to forget” after he clocked up an embarrassing 100 unforced errors before scraping into his 27th consecutive Grand Slam quarter-final at the Australian Open.
It was 11 years ago, after all, way back in 2005.
“It was one of the best matches I had this week”, Nishikori said. “It’ll be a good match”. Good could be another Grand Slam singles title which would pull her level with Steffi Graf’s 22.
Sharapova reached the Australian Open quarterfinals for the eighth time in her career by defeating Belinda Bencic 7-5, 7-5.
The 14th-seeded Simon managed to put pressure on Djokovic through a combination of pin-point ball placement, outstanding returns and boundless energy in the pair’s many long-running rallies.
Sharapova will attempt to end a 17-match losing streak against Williams, the world No. 1 player. Youre always trying to improve, said Sharapova, the 2008 champion and four-time finalist in Australia. And so many of those came on break points, of which Djokovic won just six of 25.
Berdych as always has been quietly doing his thing, keeping his cool during the explosive match with Nick Kyrgios, where the Aussie was convinced he could hear music, and his antics may have gotten the better of him, dropping a set to the Aussie. “But unfortunately, one more time it was not enough”.
Kerber saved a match point in her first-round win over Japan’s Misaki Doi, and she thought that was a good omen.
She is looking for her 22nd major title. Roger Federer holds the record with 36. “I mean, I know him well”, he said.
“Maybe that’s the difference that I have when I am playing my best tennis”.
Gilles Simon will carry the distinction of being the first man to prise a set off Novak Djokovic at this year’s Australian Open but the lion-hearted Frenchman was crushed after going down in a five-set classic on Sunday.
“The fact that from both sides I can play heavy, I can make winners, I can push him back and when I’m playing well, when I’m playing my best tennis, even for him it’s tough”. “It’s probably one out of 40, very low percentage….” “It actually gives me great joy to know that I can’t get worse than what I played today”.
“It wasn’t an easy match for me”. “I was down a match point”. Too many unforced errors.
“I’m sure I’ll be fine”, Djokovic said.
Federer plays No. 6-seeded Tomas Berdych in the quarterfinals.
Djokovic’s opponent on Tuesday will be Kei Nishikori, who advanced to the quarterfinals for the third time with a three-set victory over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
Nishikori will offer a similar test of consistency given the seventh seed’s strengths lie in his willingness to rally from the baseline.
He got the crucial break to take the third set but the persistent Simon took it into a fifth after he broke in the ninth game of the fourth set, amid another flurry of errors from the Serb. No, I don’t think I’ve had any close number to a hundred. I’m playing well. I feel so confident. I had to just regroup and find that strength and find that focus that was necessary for me to win the match.
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Berdych also had to come through a marathon five-setter as he outlasted Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 to reach the last eight for the sixth year in a row.
