The Australian Open is down to the last eight, containing three Grand Slam winners in Roger Federer, Andy Roddick and Rafael Nadal. Only one unseeded player has made it to this stage, Mardy Fish, who disposed of number four seed, Ivan Ljubicic. Roger Federer is the only player remaining who has either won or been to the final of the Australian Open.Roger Federer (1) v Tommy Robredo (7)
As the tournament has progressed, Roger Federer has moved through the gears. Presented with the fourth round challenge of Novak Djokovic, Federer dispatched the Serb in straight sets. Djokovic briefly tested Federer in the second set, but eventually his resistance was broken. Having seen the draw, Tommy Robredo most likely believed a good tournament would mean a quarter-final defeat to Federer and that is the most realistic scenario. Coming into the match with a 0-6 record versus the world number one, not even Robredo’s family and friends will be giving him much chance, if any, of causing an upset. The Spaniard overcame Richard Gasquet in four sets in the last round, and at best will be hoping to stretch Federer to four sets.
Mardy Fish v Andy Roddick (6)
An all-American encounter in the quarter-finals pits two friends against each other. Andy Roddick buoyed by the arrival of his coach, Jimmy Connors, before his third round match will be expected to move on to the last four. Roddick has notched up two notable back to back wins against Marat Safin and Mario Ancic, and anything other than another victory here will be a major surprise. Mardy Fish has had an excellent tournament and his appearance in the quarter-finals is a career best Grand Slam showing for him. Previously, Fish had never made it past the third round of a Slam in seventeen attempts. Roddick leads the head to head 4-1, Fish recorded the first win between the two but Roddick has reeled off 4 straight victories since.
Tommy Haas (12) v Nikolay Davydenko (3)
Tommy Haas and Nikolay Davydenko pick up where they left off at the last Grand Slam of 2006. At the US Open that year, both players met at the same stage of the tournament that they will do in Melbourne. Davydenko overcame a two set disadvantage to move on to the semi-finals of the US Open where he lost to eventual champion, Roger Federer. Haas comes in off the back of knocking out number eight seed, David Nalbandian. The German was in trouble a set down and facing break points, but recovered and eventually eased to victory against a visibly exhausted Nalbandian whose tank was left empty after earlier difficulties with his draw. Davydenko recorded his fifth win over Tomas Berdych, winning a nervy fourth set tie-break to complete his victory. With a 2-0 head to head advantage, the Russian will be favourite to advance to the semi-finals.
Fernando Gonzalez (10) v Rafael Nadal (2)
Fernando Gonzalez and Rafael Nadal became the 5th and 6th active players to at least reach the quarter-finals of all four Grand Slam events. Gonzalez has done so off the back of victories against talented youngsters, Evgeny Korolev and Juan Martin Del Potro, as well as home favourite, Lleyton Hewitt, and number five seed and perennial Grand Slam flop, James Blake. The Chilean was in particularly devastating form against Hewitt, and followed that up with a straight sets win over Blake. Rafael Nadal enters the last eight after what is surely the match of the tournament thus far against Andy Murray. Nadal trailed 7-6, 4-1 before scratching and clawing his way back into the match, running out an eventual winner in 5 dramatic and tension filled sets. Gonzalez leads the head to head by two victories to one, and will be hoping to replicate the hard court victory he obtained in 2004 at the Miami Masters. Nadal is an altogether different proposition now to what he was then, so the challenge facing Gonzalez is vast.
Sports Magician will be previewing the semi-finals upon completion of the quarter-finals. Tell Sports Magician who will be making the last four and going on to claim the title.
2 comments:
Nadal/Murray was eclipsed by several matches I've seen in this tournament, including:
Roddick/Ancic (so far, this match featured the highest quality tennis from both players over the course of 5 closely fought sets), Roddick/Safin, Gonzo/Hewitt, Hewitt/Russell, Nalbandian/Grosjean.
Nadal/Murray was a highly anticipated encounter given the players involved and featured some great tennis and lots of drama. But the lack of a competitive final set marred the quality of the overall affair.
Interesting thoughts, Craig. I'd agree that Roddick/Safin and possibly Gonzalez/Hewitt were on a par or arguably better viewing than Murray/Nadal.
However, I don't think Hewitt/Russell was of the same standard. And Nalbandian/Grosjean was effectively over once Nalbandian won the 3rd set as Grosjean was visibly wilting. And Nalbandian's game in the first two sets was so inconsistent, that the real drama of that match was less about the quality of tennis and more a case of whether Nalbandian would wake up, which he eventually did.
Roddick/Ancic was a good encounter, no doubts about that, but the variation and styles of Murray/Nadal provided greater interest in my view. The 5th set scoreline makes it seem it was not competitive, but not too much should be read into that. Murray had break points in Nadal's opening two service games, the scoreline could just have easily have read 3-0 Murray rather than 3-0 Nadal. Nadal deserves great credit for winning the bigger points when it came down to it in the decider.
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