Day 7 will be known as the day which changed the fantasy league. The fantasy leaderboard has not changed dramatically from day 6 but many teams will only see the effect of day 7 in the coming days as teams lost 3, 4 and even 5 players on day 7.

The mens draw begain with Hurkacz the 10th seed against the 29th seed, Korda who was coming off a huge win against 7th seed Medvedev. Hurkacz was the man who started the better of the 2 and this showed as the Polish man took the opening set 6-3. Korda however quickly found some rhythm and it was the American who managed to take the 2nd and 3rd sets and was just a set away from a grand slam quarter-final. However the occasion of being so close to the quarters got the better of him as Hurkacz comfortably took the 4th set 6-1 to send the match into a 5th set. The decider was amazing to watch as both players fought hard to try and book their spot in the quarter-finals. In the end it went to a super-tiebreak which Hurkacz has not had the best of times with. Hurkacz started the better of the 2 as he lead 3-1 before Korda won 6 points in a row to lead 7-3 and it looked like he had it in the bag. However Hurkacz then capitalized on some weak errors and the tiebreak was level once again at 7-7. Korda broke the streak of points to lead 8-7 and he managed to finish the match on his 2 service points to book his spot in his first grand slam quarter-final. He would face the winner of Khachanov and Nishioka. Khachanov who came in playing some great tennis blew Nishioka out of the water as he won the 1st 2 sets without dropping a game. The 3rd set however was alot closer and ended up going to a tiebreak which Khachanov won 7-4. Khachanov and Korda will be a great quarter-final to watch on Tuesday. The next mens match was between unseeded Lehecka and 6th seed Auger-Aliassime who had won all his matches in 4 or 5 sets so far. It was the 6th seed who took the opener 6 games to 4 before Lehecka hit back and took the 2nd set 6-4 to level the match at 1 set a piece. It always felt like the 3rd set could be the important set of the match and it ended up going the distance. To the surprise of many it was the unseeded Czech who took the tiebreak and led the match 2 sets to 1. The 4th set once again landed up going to a tiebreak and once again it was Lehecka who took the tiebreak and with it the match. The 6th seeded Canadian once again fell short in a grand slam. The last mens match of the day was between 3rd seed Tsitsipas and 15th seed, Sinner. This match on paper was definitely the match to watch however it looked after the 1st 2 sets that the match would fall short a bit on people’s expectations as Tsitsipas took both sets 6-4 to lead 2 sets to love. Sinner though then played 2 hours of unbeatable tennis to take the 3rd set 6-3 and the 4th set 6-4 and send the match into a decider. Both players started the decider well but at 2-1 Tsitsipas leading, The Greek found himself 0-40 up in a Sinner service game. Sinner then played amazingly to win 5 points and level the scores at 2-2. Once again Tsitsipas held and once again the Greek was 0-40 up on the Sinner serve. This time however. Sinner could only save 2 out of the 3 break points and it was Tsitsipas who struck first in the set. The 3rd seeded Greek managed to hold onto that break of serve and win the set 6-3 and book a quarter-final meeting against unseeded Lehecka.

In the ladies draw we saw some upsets. 2 of the big names falling were number 1 in the world Swiatek and number 7 seed, Gauff. Swiatek lost to Wimbledon champion of 2022, Rybakina in straight sets 6-4; 6-4. An impressive performance for Rybakina who has not had the best of form heading into the Australian Open. Gauff lost to 17th seed and big hitting Latvian, Ostapenko. Ostapenko has looked good all tournament and showed that she can continue to string good performances together as she beat Gauff 7-5; 6-3 and will face Rybakina in the quarter-finals. 3rd seed Pegula was up against a very dangerous opponent in 20th seed, Krejcikova. The first set Pegula was 5-3 up before being pegged back to 5-5 by Krejcikova. A 8 minute game was played at 5-5 which eventually ended up in a break to Pegula and this time she made no mistake when serving the set out. The 2nd set was more one sided as the 3rd seed won it 6-2 and booked her spot in the quarter-finals and with Swiatek now out, she is probably the favourite to reach the final in that half of the draw. The last match on was between 24th seed Azarenka and the unseeded Zhu who had beaten Sakkari and Teichmann in the Australian Open so far. Zhu showed how she won those matches as she took the opener 6-4. However she was now up against a very experienced opponent in Azarenka and Azarenka showed her up as she won the next 2 sets 6-1; 6-4. With that win she booked herself a quarter-final meeting with 3rd seed, Pegula.

Onto the fantasy leaderboard and ‘Down Under’ take the lead back. They lead ‘Live once Serve Twice’ by 2 points. ‘Groundstroke’ is still there and there abouts as they sit in 3rd and are just 4 points off the leader and 2 points off 2nd. ‘Jono’s AO23 Phenomenon’ take 4th position and have ‘Drop Shots’ just 1 point behind them in 5th. The wooden spoon is now being won by non-other than ‘Chalk Dust’.

Matches to watch on day 8

• Sabalenka(5) vs Bencic(12) (02:00)
• Linette vs Garcia(4) (03:15)
• Vekic vs Fruhvirtova (03:30)
• Pliskova(30) vs Zhang(23) (04:00)
• Shelton vs Wolf (05:00)
• Rublev(5) vs Rune(9) (05:30)
• Bautista-Agut(24) vs Paul (07:00)
• De Minaur(22) vs Djokovic(4) (10:00)

Jared

Jared matriculated in 2020 from Wynberg Boys High School in beautiful Cape Town, South Africa. His passion for tennis afforded him the opportunity of travelling to Europe. He is a quizmaster and a tennis fantasy league organiser.http://Eishonline.co.za/jftl