Title holder Jannik Sinner is on the threshold of the last four: by beating Dane Holger Rune 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 and 6-2 on Monday, the 23-year-old Italian qualified for his 10th quarter Grand Slam final on Monday at the Australian Open.
But the game was not a walk in the park for Sinner. In addition to losing a set, the world number 1 seemed to suffer from the more than 30°C in Melbourne. At one point, he was seized with tremors on the field.
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“I think we saw that I wasn’t feeling well. […] I felt a little dizzy at certain moments,” admitted the Italian.
In the next round, he will face the last Australian in the table Alex De Minaur, who defeated young American Alex Michelsen without trembling 6-0, 7-6 (5) and 6-3.
The local reached the quarter-finals for the first time at the Australian Open, a stage of the competition that he had already reached in the three other major tournaments last season.
Sinner will not be the only Italian present in the quarter-final. His compatriot Lorenzo Sonego ended the saga of young American talent Learner Tien 6-3, 6-2, 3-6 and 6-1.
Sonego will face the American Ben Shelton in the next round, winner after Frenchman Gaël Monfils retired.
“Today was really difficult for me physically. I was already very close to the limit and I unfortunately crossed it,” underlined Monfils, dulled by his long tour in Oceania.
After the first three sets went to tiebreakers, the 38-year-old French veteran walked to the net smiling at 7-6 (3), 6-7 (3), 7-6 ( 2) and 1-0 for Shelton, meaning that he was stopping the fight after almost three hours of battle and eight victories in a row.
-Advantage Ukraine
The match between Elina Svitolina and Veronika Kudermetova turned to the advantage of the Ukrainian 6-4 and 6-1, after she had still been led 4-1 in the first set.
As usual since the start of the war between Russia and Ukraine in February 2022, the two players did not pose together for the official photo at the start of the game and did not shake hands at the end. of the match.
At a press conference, the former world number 3 considered herself “responsible for finding a way to win matches, to bring a little glimmer, a little victory to the Ukrainian people”.
In the next round, Svitolina will face American Madison Keys, who defeated world seventh Elena Rybakina 6-3, 1-6 and 6-3.
The right-hander from Illinois, who has the most victories (11) on the WTA circuit since the start of the season, will try against the Ukrainian to reach the last four in Melbourne for the third time in her career, after 2015 and 2022.
For her part, world number 2 Iga Swiatek was, as since the start of the tournament, expeditious to sweep away the German Eva Lys 6-0 and 6-1 in 59 minutes.
The 23-year-old Pole, who has not lost a set since the start of the tournament, returns to the quarter-finals for the first time since 2022 in Melbourne.
In parallel with the tournament, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) announced on Monday that it would not appeal following the one-month suspension of Swiatek, sanctioned for a positive test for a banned substance carried out in mid-August 2024.
“Satisfied to reach a form of conclusion” of this affair and to be able to “move on to something else”, the Pole will face the American Emma Navarro on Wednesday, victorious in her fourth match in three sets in as many matches in the tournament against Russian Daria Kasatkina 6-4, 5-7 and 7-5.
