JOY BLOG

21 Jan 2014

Australian Open 2014 – Day 8

There were a host of upsets and great matches on day 8 at the Open. Number 3 seed Maria Sharapova was the biggest upset losing to the 20th seed Dominika Cibulkova, and she revealed she’s been battling an injury here. Dominika was however over the moon with her 3 set win. We felt a fight brewing when Dom thought Maria’s failure to serve well was more of a tactic, than due to injury.

Agnieska Radwanska had an easy win over Mugaruzza last night, but she has 2 time winner Victoria Azarenka to beat next. Age says she has trouble sleeping after a night match, so she watches TV shows like Revenge to calm herself down.

Simona Halep had nothing to lose against the number 8 seed Jelena Jankovic, and it showed. She won in 3 sets, with Jankovic failing to score a game at all in the third.

Raphael Nadal played a quality match with Japan’s Kei Nishikori yesterday afternoon. The victory may have only been in straight sets for Rapha, but each went for over an hour. Nishikori knew he was very close to taking the world number 1 to 5 sets, but just couldn’t hold serve after breaking the Spaniard in the third.

Frenchman Joe Wilfred Tsonga got so frustrated in his loss to Roger Federer, he not only hit a ball, but it went right over the wall of Rod Laver Arena. Scott Andy Murray was also frustrated when he had trouble closing out his match with Frenchman Stephane Robert, so he gave us all a lesson in how to smash a racket properly. Andy seems to sense an opportunity to beat Roger Federer in the quarter finlas, as Roger is now seeded the lowest he’s been in 5 years at Melbourne Park.

There was yet another drama in Sloane Stevens loss to Victoria Azarenka, as Sloane was accused of aiming a ball at Azza. She says she thought the number 2 seed would move out the way in time though. And when Sloane was caught on camera celebrating Serena’s loss to Ivanovic 2 days ago, she wanted to clear up the miss understanding before she left Australia. Apparently Sloane and her coach were imitating Anna’s teams celebrations and it was just looked bad.