Okay everyone – take a deep breath. Roger’s gone, but long live Stefanos Tsitsipas and all the remaining players. Foremost among them now is the free-flowing, stylish 20-year-old Greek – no longer a name for the future, but one for now.
MORE: Day 9 preview – Stepping stones
Federer wasn’t alone in departing on Sunday, the woman many felt was most likely to threaten Serena Williams, Angelique Kerber, was unceremoniously dispatched 6-0 6-2 by unheralded 25-year-old Danielle Collins of the United States – a woman who had never won a Grand Slam match before the Australian Open and was playing at Melbourne Park for the first time.
Evidence of the newcomers to quarterfinals this year is that the head-to head records for three of the four Tuesday matches are 0-0. Only Petra Kvitova and Ashleigh Barty have a history. The 28-year-old Czech leads it 3-0, but their first encounter was at the 2012 French Open when the spritely sportswoman from Ipswich in Queensland was only 16.
To Tuesday’s four quarterfinals:
No. 6 Petra Kvitova vs. No. 15 Ashleigh Barty
If they were giving out awards for the most personable athletes in the WTA locker rooms of the world, Kvitova and Barty would be among the top candidates.
But their good natures will be replaced by their game faces when they play at Rod Laver Arena on Tuesday evening for a spot in Thursday’s semifinals. Kvitova has been there once before, seven years ago in 2012, while the 22-year-old Barty is in the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam for the first time in 18 attempts.
They have played three times with the 28-year-old Czech prevailing in all three – most recently 1-6 7-5 7-6(3) in the scintillating Sydney final.
Barty is a more mature individual after 18 months off the tour from 2014-16. On court she possesses a dynamic serve for someone just 166cm. Kvitova, 183cm and left-handed, comes by her potent serve more naturally.
After a huge 4-6 6-1 6-4 conquest of a larger-than-life opponent, Maria Sharapova, on Sunday, Barty gets a return engagement with Kvitova. “It’s exciting that I get to have another chance at Petra straightaway,” she said. “Not often does that happen where you get to kind of have a replay against the same opponent.”
For Kvitova, who won more tournaments than anyone in 2018 – five – Australian Open 2019 is a chance to get back on track at the Grand Slam events. Champion at Wimbledon in 2011 and 2014, she had an abysmal overall record of 4-4 at the four majors last year.
“It will not be the final as we played in Sydney,” Kvitova said about Tuesday’s encounter with Barty, “which was a great match. (I was) very exhausted. She’s a different kind of player – she mixes it up a bit. She’s playing differently on serve too. She has the kick. Australians, of course, will be on her side, but that was the same in Sydney. So I’m kind of used to it.”
Prediction: Kvitova in three sets.
No. 44 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova vs. No 35 Danielle Collins
This is certainly a clash of opposites. Pavlyuchenkova was a precocious junior who won almost everything in sight and was the 2006 ITF World Junior Champion at age 15. The more late-blooming Collins graduated in 2016 with a media studies degree from the University of Virginia in the United States and won two National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) singles titles.
The 25-year-old American got her first Grand Slam event match win in the first round at Melbourne Park last week. She has now added three more – including 6-0 6-2 over 2016 champion Kerber on Sunday. “Let’s face it, I had tough situations last year,” she said about not winning any matches at her three 2018 Grand Slam events. “I played (Caroline) Wozniacki first round at the French, (Elise) Mertens first round at Wimbledon and (Aryna) Sabalenka first round at the US Open. I lost to really good players and I had opportunities in those matches.”
Insistent that going to college helped her find herself as a person – “and what I want to do with my life, and what I want to do with my tennis” – on the court Collins is hyper competitive. “If somebody wants to get into my face on my unforced errors,” she said Sunday, “I have no problem getting right back at them and making it a feisty match.”
Pavlyuchenkova is milder-mannered on court, and something of an enigma in that she has yet, at 27, to confirm the promise of her junior career. Capable of beating Venus Williams two weeks in a row in Tokyo and Beijing in 2009 as an 18-year-old, she has never been consistent at the very top level while still managing to stay inside the top 50 in the rankings 11 years in a row. But playing her 45th Grand Slam event, she only has four quarterfinals as best finishes.
About this chance, and what her approach will be, she said, “don’t be so nervous about it, just enjoy it. This means a lot but I want more. I’ve had quarterfinals, I want to go further.”
Prediction: Pavlyuchenkova in three sets.
No. 2 Rafael Nadal vs. No. 39 Frances Tiafoe
What an amazing transformation for Tiafoe. Three weeks ago he lost his three singles matches at Hopman Cup in Perth and looked all at sea in the mixed doubles alongside compatriot Serena Williams.
But here he is, the son of a custodian at a tennis facility in Maryland, into the quarterfinals of the Australian Open after a hard-fought 7-5 7-6(6) 6-7(1) 7-5 victory over Grigor Dimitrov on Sunday.
In an endearing, emotional post-match interview on court on the day of his 21st birthday, ‘Big Foe’ had trouble getting the words out but said, “I told my parents 10 years ago that I was going to be a pro. I was going to do this I was going to change their lives and my life. And now I’m in the quarters of a Slam – 21 years old. I can’t believe it, man.”
Tiafoe, whose No. 39 ranking will now be inside the top 30, has needed four, five and four sets in his last three matches, while Nadal has breezed through four rounds with the minimum 12 sets played. The 32-year Spanish legend, who has never played Tiafoe or even practiced with him, is aware of his talent, saying, “he has everything. He’s quick. He serves well – very quick forehand. He’s a very dynamic player, aggressive one.”
One of the more popular players in the locker room, Tiafoe is well aware of the challenge facing him versus a 17-time Grand Slam champion in fine form. “He’s going to run me like crazy,” the American said about Nadal. “I’ve been watching him play for so many years and if I can play him in the quarterfinals of a Slam, hopefully at night or something on Laver (he got his wish) – that would mean the world to me.”
He then added with a bit of youthful bravado, “yeah, he better get ready.”
Prediction: Nadal in three sets.
No. 15 Stefanos Tsitsipas vs. No. 24 Roberto Bautista Agut
There aren’t many harder workers or more hard-nosed competitors on the pro tour than 30-year Bautista Agut. There’s not much flash and dash about him, just simple determination and commitment to getting the job done.
So far in 2019 that has worked to perfection – winning the season-opening tournament (five matches) in Doha two weeks ago and then getting through four rounds at Melbourne Park, culminating in Sunday night’s 6-7(6) 6-3 6-2 4-6 6-4 victory over last year’s finalist, No. 7-ranked Marin Cilic.
A bit introverted in public, there must be emotions churning inside the Spaniard. He has now made his first Grand Slam quarterfinal after 25 attempts, and it comes less than a year after his mother Ester passed away in May, 2018.
Tsitsipas’ mother Julia Salnikova is a former player from the Soviet Union and his father, Apostolos, played touring tennis but never had an ATP ranking.
Their son is a prodigy and truly announced himself to the tennis world and the broader sports world with his show-stopping 6-7(11) 7-6(3) 7-5 7-6(5) victory over Federer on Sunday night.
Tsitsipas is a student of the game and has watched many past matches, including Federer’s huge upset at age 19 of Pete Sampras at Wimbledon in 2001. Sampras and he share Greek ancestry, and when that memorable match was mentioned to him on Sunday, he exclaimed, “actually that was fourth round as well. That’s crazy. What a coincidence.”
Explaining how he saved all 12 break points he faced against Federer, Tsitsipas said, “it was actually very mental, I would say. I could have cracked at any moment, but I didn’t because I really wanted it bad.” A multi-talented guy, he recently had to delete a YouTube video he worked hard on while in Sydney because it’s illegal to fly drones in the city and he had used one in creating his images.
Prediction: Tsitsipas in four sets.