The quest to discover the next generational player is a constant of the tennis scene. Everyone wants to get in on the ground floor of a player who might be the next Roger Federer or Serena Williams.
On Day 7 of Australian Open 2019 there are two match-ups that feature the present and the potential future of the sport. Stefanos Tsitsipas, the stylish and talented 20-year-old Greek who rose from No. 91 to No. 15 in 2018, will play six-time Melbourne champion Roger Federer, while 17-year-old American Amanda Anisimova faces two-time Wimbledon winner Petra Kvitova.
MORE: Day 7 preview – The next chapter
Kvitova is just one of four former Grand Slam champions in action on the women’s side. Maria Sharapova, Angelique Kerber and Sloane Stephens are the others, while Federer is joined by Rafael Nadal and Marin Cilic among the males. While Anisimova is the youngest player in action on Sunday, the youngest man is 21-year-old Frances Tiafoe. He plays Grigor Dimitrov, 27, who has so far not offered the evidence he will become the generational player many observers once believed he would.
To the matches to watch on Day 7:
No. 6 Petra Kvitova vs. No. 87 Amanda Anisimova
Anisimova has been the revelation of the women’s draw – on Friday, she upset highly-touted No. 11 seed Aryna Sabalenka, 20, by the score of 6-3 6-2.
Her fellow American Tiafoe, who has reached the round of 16 in the men’s draw, had high praise for the daughter of Russian immigrants. “She goes about her business every day, extremely professional,” he said about the Miami resident during his media conference on Friday. “She’s going to have a hell of a career. You guys are going to be talking to her a lot – sky’s the limit for her.”
This is only Anisimova’s third Grand Slam event, and the first where she has won a match. Before this week she was best known for beating Kvitova 6-2 6-4 in the second round at Indian Wells last year.
Kvitova, who this year has won more than two matches at the Australian Open for the first time since reaching the semifinals in 2012, recalled about the loss to Anisimova last March, “I do remember that I wasn’t feeling great, so that’s probably the first point I would like to change for the next one.”
When Anisimova was asked on Friday what her dream in tennis was, like a typical 17-year-old she showed her youthful insouciance. Smiling, she replied, “I want to win this tournament right now.”
Prediction: Kvitova in three sets.
No. 5 Sloane Stephens vs. No. 44 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova
Stephens can be something of an enigma. After she won the 2017 US Open, she lost eight first-round matches in a row – including to Zhang Shuai 2-6 7-6(2) 6-2 in the first round at Australian Open 2018.
She got back on track fairly quickly, winning the Miami Open in April, being runner-up at the French Open (to Simona Halep) in June and finishing the season ranked No. 6.
It was a slow start to 2019 with a first-round loss in Brisbane and a second-round loss in Sydney, but Stephens has found her form at Melbourne Park, defeating No. 31 seed Petra Martic 7-6(6) 7-6(5) on Friday to reach the last 16.
Stephens, an American, actually spends more time in Canada, where boyfriend Jozy Altidore plays Major League Soccer for Toronto.
Pavlyuchenkova, only 27, was the world junior champion way back in 2006. In 10 appearances at the Australian Open she has only once been past the third round – two years ago when she was a quarterfinalist.
Stephens leads the head-to-head with Pavlyuchenkova 2-0 but barely won their last encounter – 6-7(8) 6-4 6-4 on a hard court in Beijing last October.
Prediction: Stephens in three sets.
No. 15 Ashleigh Barty vs. No. 30 Maria Sharapova
Sharapova gave the virtuoso performance of the tournament so far when she outplayed defending champion Caroline Wozniacki 6-4 4-6 6-3 on Friday.
The 31-year-old Russian, champion here in 2008, rolled back the years with a cascade of winners (24 on the forehand) that simply overwhelmed the 28-year-old Dane.
Sharapova just played 31 matches (20-11 win-loss) in 2018 compared to a career high 71 (60-11) in 2012, mainly because of arm and shoulder injuries.
She partly attributed her brilliant performance against Wozniacki to being truly tested – as she was at the 2017 US Open when she beat No. 2 seed Halep 6-4 3-6 6-4 in the first round. “These are the types of matches that I really haven’t had,” she said, “where I could really challenge myself. To be in the grind of things and to really have to figure out a way to be on top is what I missed.”
Next for her, as she tries to reach her ninth Aussie Open quarterfinal, will be Barty, the unassuming 22-year-old from Ipswich in Queensland. Sharapova won their only previous meeting 7-5 3-6 6-2 in the first round of the Italian Open last May.
Barty, who was treated on court on Friday for an issue in her right hip area, downplayed the match-up with a great former champion. “It’s just an opportunity for me to go and test myself against the best,” she said.
Prediction: Sharapova in three sets.
No. 2 Rafael Nadal vs. No. 57 Tomas Berdych
The affection Australian fans, especially those at Rod Laver Arena, show for Nadal makes it easy to speculate that, if Federer did not exist, Rafa’s matches would easily be the ultimate tennis love-ins.
“When I’m on court,” he said Friday after beating Alex de Minaur, “I feel the love of all of them, no? Is a feeling that is difficult to describe.”
He will experience that feeling again when he plays Berdych at RLA on Sunday afternoon. Berdych is 33 now and returning from a back injury that kept him out of action in 2018 after the Queen’s Club tournament in June.
His ranking has slipped to No. 57, but he’s a real-deal player who was in the top 10 for seven years from 2010-16. If there were a benevolent tennis God – and no Federer, Nadal or Djokovic – surely the 195cm Czech would have won a Grand Slam title by now.
He’s 4-19 lifetime against Nadal and had lost 17 times in a row until be beat the great Spaniard 6-2 6-0 7-6(5) in the 2015 Melbourne quarterfinals.
Berdych reached the final in Doha (losing to Roberto Bautista Agut) in his first tournament back this year and is in fine form. “He started the season at a very high level,” Nadal said about Berdych, “so is going to be a very big test for me.”
Prediction: Nadal in four sets.
No. 3 Roger Federer vs. No. 15 Stefanos Tsitsipas
Federer has sailed through his first three rounds without losing a set, and described where he’s at the moment as “lights are on green. I’m injury-free, enjoying myself. The kids (twin daughters and sons) are having a great time too on the tour.”
Tsitsipas, at 20, is just barely too old to be a Federer child, but he could soon be good enough to beat him. They have not played officially on tour, but Federer did defeat the Greek 7-6(5) 7-6(4) at Hopman Cup two weeks ago in Perth. “He’s got variation in his game and likes to come to the net,” Federer said about the 193cm Tsitsipas. “He’s a tall guy and serves well and moves extremely well for a big guy. It’s amazing these days what these big guys can do.”
Tsitsipas can get emotional on court and used some salty language, which he later apologised for, to get himself fired up in his last match against Nikoloz Basilashvili. His best friend on tour is Greek Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis, who lost the 2006 Aussie Open final to Federer. About facing the peerless Swiss at Rod Laver Arena, Tsitsipas said, “it’s insane I’m in this position where I can actually play him. It’s really emotional.”
Prediction: Federer in four sets.
No. 21 Grigor Dimitrov vs. No. 39 Frances Tiafoe
It would be quite a 21st birthday present Sunday if Tiafoe was able to upset Dimitrov and reach his first Grand Slam quarterfinal. In 11 previous Grand Slam events, he has only once (Wimbledon 2018) been as far as the third round.
It’s been a long way for Tiafoe, whose parents come from Sierra Leone, from hitting against a wall at age three at the tennis facility in Maryland, USA, where his father served as a custodian, to the round of 16 at a Grand Slam event.
He’s known for his huge, loose, slappy forehand and his post-match celebrations – his last inspired by basketball superstar LeBron James. “(He’s) not just an unbelievable athlete,” says Tiafoe, “but what he does outside playing basketball. The school he made, putting 50 mill into that – that’s unheard of. He’s an absolute icon.”
Dimitrov has a superstar of his own for inspiration – his coach Andre Agassi, whom the Bulgarian says is “all in.” An Aussie Open quarterfinalist in 2018 and a semifinalist in 2017, Dimitrov describes himself and his lower profile these days as ‘stealth.’ The one previous meeting between the pair was a thriller – the Bulgarian winning 7-6(1) 3-6 7-6(4) at the 2018 Canadian Open.
Prediction: Dimitrov in four sets.