Australian Open Day 9 Preview: Serena-Sharapova Matchup Highlights Quarterfinals
The ninth day of the Australian Open gets underway tonight as the first round of quarterfinals in the men’s and women’s singles draw will be played. There a lot of former champions vying for spots in the semifinals: Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, making for great tennis on day nine in Melbourne.
(1) Serena Williams (United States) vs. (5) Maria Sharapova (Russia)
It is often said in sports that a matchup can’t be considered a rivalry if one side is completely dominated by the other. So you may not consider Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova much of a rivalry when you take into account Serena’s 18-2 record against Sharapova, but the 21st meeting between the two tonight is still a marquee matchup. Serena is the defending champion and has won this title six times in her career, while Sharapova’s lone title here came in 2008. Sharapova has looked sharp thus far, but Serena seems to raise her game to another level when Sharapova is standing on the other side of the court.
(4) Agnieszka Radwanska (Poland) vs. (10) Carla Suarez-Navarro (Spain)
Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska enters this match playing some of the best tennis of her career. Despite dropping the opening set to Germany’s Anna-Lena Friedsam, Radwanska rallied for a 6-1 second set win before taking the third and final set 7-5. Carla Suarez-Navarro has dropped the opening set in two of her matches thus far and came back to win, but that will be a much taller task against Radwanska. If Suarez-Navarro is to win this match, she will need to start off much stronger against the Pole. Radwanska leads the head-to-head series 2-1.
(1) Novak Djokovic (Serbia) vs. (7) Kei Nishikori (Japan)
This quarterfinal is a rematch of the 2014 U.S. Open semifinals, when Nishikori upended Djokovic in four sets to reach the first and only Grand Slam final of his career. Injuries limited Nishikori’s success in 2015, but he has responded early on in 2016. He steamrolled France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in straight sets in the fourth round, and will need to duplicate that performance to have a shot against the world number one. Djokovic was pushed to five sets by Frenchman Gilles Simon in his fourth-round matchup, so maybe Nishikori will be able to take advantage of some tired legs in the Serb. Djokovic is 5-2 all-time against Nishikori and is seeking his fourth semifinal appearance in five years at the Aussie Open.
(3) Roger Federer (Switzerland) vs. (6) Tomas Berdych (Czech Republic)
A semifinalist the last two years, sixth-seeded Czech Tomas Berdych hopes to make it three straight semifinal appearances when he takes to the Rod Laver Arena court later. But standing across the net will be third-seed Roger Federer, the four-time champion who is 15-6 in his career against Berdych. But the Czech enters this match with confidence, as he has yet to drop a set thus far in Melbourne, and his power game works extremely well on the hard, fast courts.
“It’s Roger. It’s always going to be a huge challenge playing him,” said Berdych. “It’s the quarters of a Slam. I like my chances.”
While the singles quarterfinals are the premier matchups of the day, the men’s and women’s doubles quarterfinals get underway as well. Both top seeds will be in action. The top-seeded women, Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis seek their 34th straight win against 12th seeds Ann-Lena Groenefeld and Coco Vandeweghe, while top-seeded men Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau will take on Adrian Mannarino and Lucas Pouille.
