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Barty party rages at the Australian Open as the dominos continue to fall

Roar Guru
23rd January, 2022
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Roar Guru
23rd January, 2022
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If there were ever any doubts about Ashleigh Barty’s Australian Open title credentials, they were extinguished last night as she steamrolled her way into the quarter-finals at Melbourne Park for the fourth consecutive year.

The Queenslander’s straight-sets victory over Amanda Anisimova came following an afternoon session which saw three of her title threats – Paula Badosa, Victoria Azarenka and Maria Sakkari – lose their respective fourth round matches without winning a set between them.

More on Barty’s win shortly, but first let’s recap how the dominos continued to fall in her favour.

In the morning, Badosa, who entered the tournament as a dark horse for the title having won the Sydney Tennis Classic the previous week, put in an error-riddled performance against Madison Keys, losing 6-3, 6-1 in just 69 minutes.

The Spaniard was broken in the second game of the opening set and from there she would be left to play catch-up as Keys continued her own hot start to the year, racking up her tenth win from 11 starts this season.

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The American, who won her first title since 2019 at the second iteration of the Adelaide International last week, has now progressed to her first major quarter-final since that same year where she lost to eventual champion Barty at the French Open.

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In the final eight she will face reigning French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova, who thrashed 24th seed Victoria Azarenka in straight sets to reach her first Australian Open quarter-final, and third major quarter-final in her past four starts.

The Belarussian was no match for the fourth seed, losing each set 6-2 and appearing to struggle with a neck injury for which she received treatment after being broken early in the second set.

The 32-year-old was the only former champion remaining in the draw – having won in 2012 and 2013 – and throughout the first week had shown the form that also took her to the top of the rankings in the former year, including defeating Elina Svitolina for the loss of just two games in the third round.

Her defeat means we’ll have a brand new Australian Open champion by this Saturday night.

Which takes us now to Ashleigh Barty’s straight-sets win over Amanda Anisimova, which has reinforced her status as the title favourite at Melbourne Park.

This was always going to shape up as a tough test of the Australian’s credentials, given this was an opponent who went into their match riding a wave of confidence after saving two match points to edge out reigning champion Naomi Osaka in a three-set third round thriller.

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Naomi Osaka plays a backhand

Naomi Osaka (Photo by Fred Lee/Getty Images)

It was also the second time Barty and Anisimova were to meet in a major after the Ipswich native won what was, by her own admission, a career-defining clash in the semi-finals of the French Open which she went on to win.

A break in the seventh game of the opening set was enough for the 25-year-old to win the first set, 6-4, immediately after which she coughed up her first service game of the tournament to fall behind 0-2 as the American attempted to emulate her heroics against Osaka from the previous round.

But it only spurred Barty to finish the match strongly, winning six of the final seven games to march into the final eight at the Australian Open for the fourth consecutive year, where she hopes to go one better than last year’s quarter-final effort.

Her next opponent will be American 21st seed Jessica Pegula, whom the Queenslander beat in their only previous meeting – all the way back in the first round of her successful French Open campaign three years ago.

The 27-year-old progressed to her second straight quarter-final Down Under after defeating Greek fifth seed Maria Sakkari in straight sets, including winning the first set in a tiebreak where she did not concede a point.

A lot of water has passed under the bridge since the last time Barty and Pegula met, and the latter will be attempting to better her quarter-final effort from last year and reach her first Major semi-final.

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The only player remaining in the women’s field that has previously reached the final here at Melbourne Park is Simona Halep, who plays French veteran Alize Cornet in the second match on Rod Laver Arena this afternoon.

Halep’s progression through the draw was made easier by Cornet defeating third seed and reigning WTA Finals champion Garbine Muguruza in the second round.

Garbine Muguruza

(PETER PARKS/AFP/Getty Images)

For the Frenchwoman, this is her first appearance in the fourth round of the Australian Open since 2009, where she held two match points against Dinara Safina only to lose in three sets to the eventual finalist; to that point of the year it was already her third loss against the Russian for the season.

It was also that year in which she achieved a career-high ranking of 11 just weeks after turning 19. Now, 13 years on, she will be hoping to spring an upset against Halep and reach her first major quarter-final at Melbourne Park.

On the men’s side of things, Rafael Nadal continued his march through the draw then saw one of the biggest threats in his quarter of the draw crash out of the tournament.

The Spaniard was tested early against French veteran Adrian Mannarino, with the first set going to a tiebreak that clocked in at 28 minutes and 40 seconds – 20 seconds longer than what it took Jarkko Nieminen to beat Bernard Tomic in straight sets at the Miami Masters in 2014.

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Ultimately, Nadal won the tiebreak 16-14, ending a first set that required 81 minutes to complete – 12 minutes longer than what it took Madison Keys to beat Paula Badosa in straight sets earlier in the day.

That took up nearly half of the total playing time of this match, with the 35-year-old completing a straight-sets victory in two hours and 40 minutes to book a quarter-final berth against 14th seed Denis Shapovalov.

The Canadian booked his place in the last eight by upsetting third seed Alexander Zverev in straight sets, the result further exposing the German as a pretender at the majors.

From 19 matches against top-20 opposition at the majors, he has won only four matches, while he is winless from 11 matches against those ranked in the top ten.

This means that next year’s Australian Open will mark two decades since a German man last reached the final here, when Rainer Schuettler was dealt a straight-sets hiding by Andre Agassi after upsetting Andy Roddick in the semi-finals.

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French showman Gael Monfils ended Serbian involvement at this year’s Australian Open, defeating Miomir Kecmanovic, who had vowed to “stand up for Novak Djokovic” after beating Italian lucky loser Salvatore Caruso in the first round, in straight sets.

Monfils will meet Wimbledon finalist Matteo Berrettini in the quarter-finals.

The four remaining fourth round matches in the men’s draw will be played this afternoon, with local hopes pinning on 32nd-seeded Alex de Minaur to see if he can reach the quarter-finals at the Australian Open for the first time.

Should he do so, he’ll be the first Australian man to get that far since Nick Kyrgios in 2015, but first he’ll need to quell the threat that is Italian 11th seed Jannik Sinner.

The other fourth round match in this quarter of the draw is between Greek fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas and Taylor Fritz, one of two American men left remaining at Melbourne Park.

The other, Maxime Cressy, takes on second seed Daniil Medvedev in a match scheduled to be the third played on Margaret Court Arena.

Former US Open champion Marin Cilic, fresh off the back of an upset straight-sets win against Russian fifth seed Andrey Rublev, takes on Canada’s Felix Auger Aliassime, who will be attempting to join his countryman Denis Shapovalov in the final eight.

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Matches to watch on Day 8

Rod Laver Arena
Day session – from 11:00am AEDT
[27] Danielle Collins (USA) vs [19] Elise Mertens (BEL)
NB 1:00pm AEDT
[14] Simona Halep (ROU) vs Alize Cornet (FRA)
NB 2:30pm AEDT
[32] Alex de Minaur (AUS) vs [11] Jannik Sinner (ITA)

Night session – from 7:00pm AEDT
[20] Taylor Fritz (USA) vs [4] Stefanos Tsitsipas (GRE)
Kaia Kanepi (EST) vs [2] Aryna Sabalenka (BLR)

Margaret Court Arena
Day session – NB 2:00pm AEDT
Maxime Cressy (USA) vs [2] Daniil Medvedev (RUS)
NB 5:30pm
[7] Iga Swiatek (POL) vs Sorana Cirstea (ROU)

John Cain Arena
Day session – NB 2:00pm AEDT
[27] Marin Cilic (CRO) vs [9] Felix Auger-Aliassime (CAN)

The full schedule for Day 8 is available over at the AO website.

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