The 4th round has begun which means no more substitutes are able to come on from day 8 onwards.

Day 8 in the ladies draw was finally full of no surprises and turned out to be a pretty good day for the seeds. 4th seed, Gauff started the day off and cruised through Frech. The American teenager dropping just 3 games on her way to making yet another grand slam quarter-final. What will please her is the fact that she has been able to continue her good form after winning last years US Open. Kostyuk continued her run at the this years Aussie Open with a hugely impressive 6-2; 6-1 win over Timofeeva. She will now face the in form 4th seed, Gauff for a spot in the quarter-finals. 2nd seed, Sabalenka is still the best female pick overall as she cruises past another opponent in Anisimova 6-3; 6-2. She is well on her way to defending her title here at the Aussie Open. Her opponent in the quarter’s is the 9th seed, who after a year has finally found some form, Krejcikova. Krejcikova managed to complete a comeback win against the very impressive 16 year old Andreeva to book her spot in the quarter’s. Krejcikova winning the match 4-6; 6-3; 6-2.

In the mens draw there was just the 1 upset which in this tournament so far is hugely impressive. 1st seed, Djokovic, had a rare match during the day as he faced 20th seed, Mannarino. Djokovic made very quick work of Mannarino as he won 6-0; 6-0; 6-3 to book yet another quarter-final spot. His opponent will be 12th seed, Fritz, who was the player who created the upset on day 8. The American having a great tournament after the tight 1st round win. Fritz beat 7th seed, Tsitsipas to book the quarter-final meeting with Djokovic. The 12th seed has pushed Djokovic to a 5 set match here in the past and will be hoping to do 1 better and beat the number 1 this time round. 4th seed, Sinner, continued his flawless Aussie Open and he completed his 4th straight set win in just as many matches. Sinner beating 15th seed, Khachanov who will be pleased with his tournament, 6-4; 7-5; 6-3. The last match of the day was certainly the best match of the day. The match was between 5th seed, Rublev and 10th seed, De Minaur and it lasted just over 4 hours. Both players were playing some great tennis heading into the match and both put on a show for the crowd and millions of viewers around the world. Rublev started the match playing some lights out tennis and raced to a 4-1 lead before De Minaur realed him in to make it 4-4. Rublev managed to hold and break and the first set was in the bag for the 5th seed. The 2nd and 3rd sets were extremely tight with both players pushing each other on serve and no player holding serve easily. They both ended up going to a tiebreak and both were won by the home favourite De Minaur. Rublev regrouped just in time and played a very impressive 4th set to take it 6-3 and take us to a deserved 5th set. Unfortunately for the crowd and De Minaur, he started making some uncharacteristic errors in the 5th set and Rublev started playing some of his best tennis in the match. The 5th seed won the last set 6-0 in what was an impressive display and booked a meeting with 4th seed, Sinner in the quarter-finals. A tasting meeting for sure.

Onto the fantasy leaderboard and oh boy has it changed up front. ‘Faulty Feet’ after dropping to 11th on day 7 have moved back into the lead and lead by an impressive 4 points. ‘Serve with Eish’ our leaders on day 7 are now in 2nd on 160 points. ‘Aussie Guess’ sit in 3rd and continue their top 5 run at this Aussie Open. ‘Left Back in the Changeroom’ move into the top 5 for I think the first time. They sit 11 points off the lead and 2 points off 3rd. ‘Kick My Ace’ move into the prize positions for the 1st time on day 8. They sit in 5th with ‘On Top’ just 1 point behind in 6th. Up to 14th position are still definitely in the running for a prize which makes the matches today and this week hugely important. ‘Match Point’ moved back into the wooden spoon position and are now 9 points off ‘Champions’ who sit in 79th.

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 fantasy organiser.