Contrary to what Daniil Medvedev may have suggested, day eight of the Australian Open was anything but boring. A slew of tense, torrid and at times exhausting fourth-round matches finally came to a close as the clock struck midnight in Melbourne, as Stefanos Tsitsipas gritted his teeth to battle past Taylor Fritz in five sets and Kaia Kanepi ousted Aryna Sabalenka in a dramatic final-set tiebreak.
It had been quite the day. Of the eight singles matches to take place across the men’s and women’s draws, Kanepi’s victory over Sabalenka was the shortest at two hours and 19 minutes. All four women’s matches went to deciding sets and of the four men to reach the quarter-finals on Monday, only Jannik Sinner did so in straight sets and with any hint of a cruise. As Iga Swiatek, the 2020 French Open champion, broke down in tears after finally seeing off Sorana Cirstea, many would have felt like doing the same.
Medvedev, who continued his quest for back-to-back grand slam titles, later apologised for losing his head as he tried to crack the puzzle presented to him by opponent Maxime Cressy. A relic to a bygone era, Cressy has stated it is his aim to disrupt men’s tennis by bringing back the serve-and-volley style, and it left Medvedev in a fluster. After edging the second set on a tiebreak and dropping the third, Medvedev's frustrations boiled over as he lashed out at his opponent’s tactics and good fortune in an on-court rant that proved Cressy was succeeding.
Although Medvedev went on to seal a 6-2 7-6(7-4) 6-7(4-7) 7-5 victory, it was clear Cressy had gotten under his skin. But, as Medvedev later revealed his histrionics had been an attempt to get into Cressy’s head, it was a reminder that the Russian will use anything and everything to feed his own energy. His opponent in the quarter-final, Felix Auger-Aliassime, saw off a similar challenge of endurance and stamina as the 21-year-old defeated veteran Marin Cilic in four sets. Their quarter-final on Wednesday will be a test of how far Auger-Aliassime has progressed since his defeat to Medvedev in the US Open semi-finals in September.
They are joined in the last eight by Tsitsipas, who fought against inconsistency and fatigue to defeat Fritz 4-6, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4. The Greek appeared to be out of sorts as Fritz, unnerved by his first fourth-round appearance at a grand slam, controlled the rallies and brought Tsitsipas under his spell. It took a monumental effort from Tsitsipas to overturn the momentum but he will have to be considerably sharper against the in-from Italian Sinner, who again impressed by dismissing Alex de Minaur in perhaps the only stress-free encounter of the day.
A considerable amount of that anguish was reserved for the match between Sabalenka and Kanepi. That the women’s No 2 seed had prevailed against her serving yips to even reach the fourth round was remarkable but Sabalenka has finally run out of ground. To her credit, rather than turning away from it, the Belarusian had embraced her crisis, laughing off only making 10 double faults in her third-round win after making as many as 19 earlier in the tournament.
Here, against Kanepi, her double fault total stood at 15, including three in one game during the nerve-shredding final stages of the third set. Kanepi, an unseeded 36-year-old from Estonia who has never before made it past the quarter-finals of a grand slam, showed her own nerves and prematurely thought she had won the match after going 9-7 up in the deciding tiebreak. For Sabalenka, at least the nightmare of Australia is over and she can begin to tackle the serving issues that cost her a deep tournament run.
Amongst the strain and toil, there were more positive stories elsewhere. None more so than Alize Cornet, who at the 63rd attempt and after 15 years of grand-slam appearances finally reached a quarter-final with a straight sets win over former world No 1 Simona Halep.
Cornet then proceeded to produce an arguably even more touching moment, as she took time out of her own celebrations to praise former Australian tennis star Jelena Dokic, who was conducting the on-court interview. Dokic has this week been the target of abuse on social media, with the commentator calling out the “disgusting” body-shaming comments she has been sent online. Her interview with Cornet ended with the pair hugging it out on the Rod Laver Arena.
The tears, though, were reserved for Swiatek. “For me, a week without crying is not a week, I cry when I lose, I cry when I win,” she said after fighting from a set down to defeat Cirstea. It had been a difficult day.
