Day 8 of the Australian Open and a little bit of drama in the fantasy league as we have had some eliminations. 6 teams have been eliminated and due to being eliminated we have a wooden spoon winner which will be announced just before the leaderboard but firstly lets go through what has happened on day 8.

All the ladies matches were first on today so we will start there. 5th seed Sabalenka and 12th seed, Bencic, which I thought was arguably the biggest ladies match of the day started the day off. Sabalenka had been looking very strong so far in the tournament while Bencic had had some hiccups but ultimately had carried her good form from before the tournament into the Aussie Open. Incredibly however it was a very one sided match with Sabalenka as she has done all tournament blasted Bencic off the court winning 7-5; 6-2 and booking a quarter-final spot. She would face the winner of Vekic and 17 year old Fruhvirtova. Vekic showed her worth against the youngster as she took the 1st set 6-2 but Fruhvirtova was not fazed at all as she raced away in the 2nd 6-1 and sent the match into a 3rd set. The decider was always going to be tense as both ladies felt that this could be their chance as the draw had opened up nicely. Vekic was the more confident one as she took the 3rd set 6-3 and booked herself a quarter-final meeting against the very dangerous 5th seed, Sabalenka. The next ladies match on was between unseeded Linette and 4th seed Garcia. Linette has been playing some great tennis so far…she has only dropped 1 set which was too Kontaveit while Garcia who always looked like a favourite on paper has had a few very close matches. The first set was always going to be an important one and so it proved to be as both players played well to send the 1st set into a tiebreak. Garcia didn’t serve her best in the tiebreak and this cost her as Linette took it 7-3 and with it the 1st set. Linette then got the all-important break in the 2nd set and this was enough to knock out form player Garcia. A huge win for Linette. The last ladies match was between 30th seed Pliskova who had found some form again in this tournament and 23rd seed, Zhang. Pliskova used all her experience to lose just 4 games on her way to the last 8 where she will face Linette.

In the mens draw the first match on was between unseeded American Shelton and unseeded American JJ Wolf. Shelton managed to take the match in 5 but it was he who was 2 sets to 1 down and the 4th set went into a tiebreak. A really impressive win for the 20 year old. 5th seed Rublev was up against the dangerous opponent in 9th seed, Rune. Rublev took the opener 6-3 before Rune took the 2nd 6-3. There was nothing between them after 2 sets. Rublev took control of the match once again as he took the 3rd set 6-3 and led 2 sets to 1. The 4th set went on serve before Rune managed to break to take the set 6-4 and the match headed into a 5th set. Rune used the momentum gained from the 4th set to break and lead 3-1 and then lead 5-2 in the 5th. Rublev held serve for 5-3 and forced the youngster to serve out the match. He couldn’t as he was broken to love and then Rublev held to love and we were level once again at 5-5. Rune then kept his composure to take his service game to love and lead 6-5. It was once again Rublev under pressure as Rune had 2 match points at 15-40; 6-5. Rublev saved the first with an unreturnable and he saved the 2nd match point with a big forehand after a tentative backhand from Rune. 2 aces later and we were heading into the tiebreak with the momentum it seemed behind Rublev. However that was not the case as Rune took the first 5 points of the tiebreak and led at the first change over 5-1. He then led 6-2 with a serve to come but Rublev kept his cool and at the next changeover he had made the score 7-5 Rune leading. As the swapped it once again looked like the momentum had swung and 4 points in a row for Rublev this time took him to 2 match points. Rune saved the first on his serve comfortably but the second match point was on Rublev’s serve. Rublev played the perfect point up until the very end as he never put away the drive volley and Rune passed him with a great backhand down the line and we were level once again 9-9. Both players had had 2 match points. A big serve from Rublev and this time a better drive volley meant he led 10-9. Rublev won the match 11-9 in the tiebreak thanks to his backhand return clipping the net and rolling over. An incredible win for Rublev. He will now face Djokovic in the quarter-finals as the Serb who is so called injured destroyed home favourite De Minaur in straight sets and only dropping 5 games total. The last match was between unseeded American Paul and 24th seed, Bautista-Agut. Paul was trying to make it an all American quarter-final and he did managed to do just that as he beat Bautista-Agut in 4 sets – 6-2; 4-6; 6-2; 7-5. An impressive win and now a favourite for sure to reach the semi’s as he plays Shelton in the quarters.

Onto the fantasy leaderboard and man oh man is it close at the front. We have a three way tie at the top for ,I think, the first ever time in my fantasy league. ‘Down Under’, ‘ Live once Serve Twice’ and ‘Groundstroke’ are all on 165 points and all lead the Aussie Open fantasy leaderboard. ‘Jono’s AO23 Phenomenon’ remains in 4th but has closed the gap to the leaders to just 9 points. For the first time ‘Sinner’s Injuries’ enters into the top 5 and is just 1 point off 4th and 10 points off the lead.

‘Another Try’, ‘My Dream Team’, ‘Simply Smashing’, ‘111th’, ‘Winning Ways’ and ‘Baseline’ have all been eliminated from the competition and its only day 8. 6 teams have been eliminated which just shows how many upsets there have been in this topsy turvy Australian Open. The latter ‘Baseline’ cannot earn any more points and is sitting in 63rd and last place so we have ourselves a wooden spoon winner. Congratulations ‘Baseline’!!!!

Matches to Watch on Day 8

• Rybakina(22) vs Ostapenko(17) (03:30)
• Khachanov(18) vs Korda(29) (05:00)
• Pegula(3) vs Azarenka(24) (10:00)
• Tsitsipas(3) vs Lehecka (11:15)

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