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Melbourne Park has been busy in the last couple of days as all the early round matches were completed to give us a fascinating Quarter-Final line-up!
Firstly, the 2nd round matches in the bottom half of the draw were played. World number 3 Vanessa Child made a successful return to the tour, overcoming a bit of rust to defeat Valkyrie 6-4 6-3. It was her first match since winning the US Open last year. Child only just gave up her number 1 ranking by failing to appear at the Masters Cup. She is going for a 4th straight Grand Slam title and to complete a career Grand Slam. Her best result in Melbourne has been a SF. The defending champion Yodavitch also looked a bit rusty in his opening match against Tennis Fan. He was pushed in each set, but managed to pull out a 7-5 7-5 win. Yodavitch was a clear number 2 to Child last year and the only player to be able to challenge her for the number 1 ranking until the very end of the year. He had been sidelined with injury since the Ljubicic International last year, and only just made his return last week in Sydney, where he made the final. Another big name in action was former world number 1 John Edelstein, who is a two-time former champion here. He upset 7th seed x.doublea 6-4 6-4 to show he still has what it takes. Edelstein has recently seen his ranking slip down to outside the top 20 due to injury and a huge lapse in form. He has been close to retirement on several occasions now, but still remains positive. Last year, he rarely made runs at the big events, but did have small bursts of good play, like winning the Tier 1 Roddick Open. There was another upset as Avolt took out former semi-finalist J-man, the 10th seed. The match was a roller-coaster and ended up in a final set tie-break, which Avolt won 7-1. Avolt had the perfect mix to throw off his opponent, and this win really opened up the draw for him and Edelstein. The 6th seed Stroganoff had a fairly easy 6-4 6-4 win over Duke. Stroganoff has recently got herself back into the top 10 with some consistent play last year. She reached the US Open final 5 years ago. She set up a 3rd round encounter with in-form Ying-Chang, who upset former world number 1 Bizet in straight sets. In other 2nd round matches, leftys_rock dispatched of 15th seed Benchwarmer1 7-5 6-2 and 14th seed Mollusk cruised past recent Christmas Island champion Adelaide, 6-2 6-4.
The Round of 16, which was completed just yesterday, featured high quality tennis right through the draw. 5 of the 8 matches were 3-setters. World number 1 NEA looked to be more comfortable with his new title, and had an easier time than in his 2nd round match. He beat 16th seed Agassi2000 6-4 6-3 to avenge his 3rd round loss to the American last year and reach the QF for the second time. Last year's finalist dav6789 overcame a determined 9th seed Tricatrina 4-6 7-5 6-3. Tricatrina came out playing smart tennis, forcing errors out of dav6789 in ths first set.l However, the 8th seed rallied back and after winning a close second set, came out firing in the third. From the claycourt season onwards last year, dav6789 failed to maintain the form that took him to the final last year. However, with a new year and a lighter schedule, he is confident he can get back to his best and go even further in the rankings. He has not won a title since the Season 3 Davenport US Champs. 12th seed stevos14 won an exciting battle with 5th seed Jennnacourt 6-2 3-6 6-3. stevos has always had an edge over Jennacourt and maintained that again here. After a confident start from the 5th seed, stevos got fired up to storm through the first set. Jennacourt played better from behind and took the second in just as comfortable fashion. In the final set, stevos saved many break points in the opening game and from there on, wared down Jennacourt, who knew her chance had gone. For Jennacourt, her rather average Australian Open record continues, with only one QF to her name. Like Tricatrina, Jennacourt leaves Melbourne still in search of her second Grand Slam title.
