Australian Open: Taylor-made for Djokovic

MELBOURNE, January 23

Novak Djokovic and Coco Gauff were both made to toil for semifinals places on a blazing Tuesday at the Australian Open but organisers were spared a ridiculously late finish as Aryna Sabalenka and Jannik Sinner roared through the night session.

Two epic battles in the afternoon meant defending women’s champion Sabalenka did not walk onto Rod Laver Arena until well after 9pm but the Belarusian made light of Czech Barbora Krejcikova, winning 6-2 6-3 to ease pressure on the schedule.

Fourth seed Sinner then beat fifth seed Andrey Rublev 6-4 7-6(5) 6-3 just before 1.30am to set up a mouth-watering clash with Djokovic and leave a shattered Rublev picking over a 10th defeat in 10 Grand Slam quarterfinals.

Holder Djokovic was expected to breeze past Taylor Fritz having come into the contest with an 8-0 win-loss record over the 12th seeded American but he endured a stern test that lasted four hours to prevail 7-6(3) 4-6 6-2 6-3.

“This match was not an enjoyable match for me at all,” Djokovic said. “Of course, I’m proud to overcome the kind of challenge and obstacles and I’m pleased to win but it wasn’t enjoyable at all. It was really ... a lot of suffering in every aspect. You have days like that where you just have to accept it, face the circumstances and try to make the most out of it.”

33 Top-ranked Djokovic extended his winning streak at Melbourne Park to 33 matches, a tournament record he shares with Monica Seles

51 The 19-year-old Coco Gauff overcame 51 unforced errors, nine double-faults and had just 17 winners in her win against Marta Kostyuk

Tough moments

Djokovic has had some tough moments on his way to reaching his 48th Grand Slam but is now two wins away from a record-extending 11th Melbourne Park title and 25th Grand Slam to eclipse the record he shares with Margaret Court.

Invariably he finds a solution and Gauff was forced to do the same against Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk, admitting she had to win “ugly” as she triumphed 7-6(6) 6-7(3) 6-2 in a scrappy match lasting a little over three hours.

“Yeah, it was a fight,” the US Open champion Gauff, who had to battle back from 5-1 down in the opening set, said. “I think today was definitely a ‘C’ game. Hopefully I got the bad match out of the way.”

She will certainly have to against reigning champion Sabalenka who had far too much power for 2021 French Open champion Krejcikova in a match lasting only 71 minutes. — Reuters

Sabalenka’s ritual works again

Aryna Sabalenka continued to cut a swathe through the Australian Open draw with a sometimes brutal demolition of Barbora Krejcikova today but only after she had signed her name on the bald head of her fitness trainer.

The Belarusian would be the first to admit that she sometimes marches to a different drummer and her new pre-match ritual, now repeated five times at Melbourne Park this year, is not too popular with performance coach Jason Stacy. “Somehow I decided to start drawing my signature on his head,” Sabalenka had explained. “I did it before the first match. Now it’s a routine. Every time, he’s not super happy that I’m going to do it.” Reuters

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