10SBALLS REPORTS FROM THE TENNIS AT THE AUSTRALIAN OPEN – IT’S ALL ABOUT THE BIG NUMBERS AS MARIA SHARAPOVA & ROGER FEDERER BOTH REACH MILESTONES

Written by: Global Chick on 22nd January 2016

10SBALLS REPORTS FROM THE TENNIS AT THE AUSTRALIAN OPEN - IT'S ALL ABOUT THE BIG NUMBERS AS MARIA SHARAPOVA & ROGER FEDERER BOTH REACH MILESTONES

epaselect epa05115256 Andy Murray (L) of Britain in action against Sam Groth (R) of Australia during their second round match at the Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament in Melbourne, Australia, 21 January 2016. EPA/LUKAS COCH AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND OUT |

Another day of delayed starts in Melbourne as the rain continued to make its presence felt, but with three roofed courts, (that were mostly planned for hot sun and heat conditions) fans (especially with ground passes to get into Hisense area) were assured of some tennis to start their day.

It was another star-studded schedule (on the courts that were covered, of course) so that did not disappoint.

We had wall to wall “Swiss-ness” on Rod Laver Arena today starting with Belinda Bencic, who had to work hard to avoid The Curse of The Seeds …. she had it tough though – Kateryna Bondarenko has been pretty solid this week, and had Bencic under pressure in the first set, making the Swiss teen force a third set.

Maria Sharapova of Russia in action against Lauren Davis of the USA during their third round match at the Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament in Melbourne, Australia, 22 January 2016. EPA/LYNN BO BO

What’s next for her is a clash against Maria Sharapova – who really had to work for her place in the fourth round. It started as a pretty routine outing in the first set with a solid demonstration of power over the diminutive Lauren Davis. But the American had fight and how, as she snapped right back at the Russian after losing her serve early in the second set.

Not content with that, she broke Sharapova again, forcing the five time Grand Slam champion to go respond in kind to level things up. Give Davis her due, she hung in and took advantage of Sharapova’s errors as they she stayed just a nudge ahead of Sharapova in the tie-break – letting her level but never letting her take the lead. That was in spite of a miss and-a-half that had the American cover her face in shock.

With Roger Federer and Grigor Dimitrov waiting in the wings, ready to go, we were treated to their reactions as the match rolled into a third set. ( which is very strange to have a camera in a training room when the players were Not aware of it , it looked like a scene from the TV show “Big Brother”) check link below.

Experience plays a big hand in matches and circumstances like these and Sharapova gave herself some breathing room with a 3-0 lead… which became a 6-1, 6-7(5), 6-0 win in the end, and her 600th career win.

She said, after the match: “I felt like I made it a little bit more difficult than I should have. I definitely had a letup at 2-1, 30-Love. You know, felt like I was hitting the ball well, doing the right things to get in that position, then let up. In a Grand Slam environment against anyone you can’t expect to get away with it, and I didn’t in the second set.

“Overall really happy with how I came out in the third and stepped up, considering it’s been, you know, many weeks since I’ve been in that position. So I was happy with the way I finished.”

Six hundred matches is quite the milestone, marked with a cake, by the organisaers, but there is still very much a job to do here, as she explained.

“I think it’s a proud number. I’ve played for many years. I don’t think about those numbers until I finish the match and someone does mention it. I think it’s a good fact that I’ve been able to win that many matches. But overall it’s not constantly on my mind, how many matches I’ve won in my career.”

As rain continued to play complete havoc with the day, Roger Federer and Grigor Dimitrov came out as the roof was opened – They had given us the most entertaining reactions during the tie-break – (here, if you missed it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3Bzo7YnVWY).

Roger Federer of Switzerland plays a forehand to Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria during their third round match at the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne, Australia, 22 January 2016. EPA/TRACEY NEARMY

Now about that roof. Opened for the first game and then the guys hung about as the bad weather forecast for between 3pm and 7pm started up bang on time. A few minutes later, Federer was able to get his first service game underway, as the match finally really got going.

A single break was enough to put Federer ahead, but Dimitrov was beginning to stir, defending three set points on his serve before making Federer serve out or the first set.

There was no doubt about it, Dimitrov was beginning to loosen up, putting pressure on Federer at the start of the second set, and breaking the Swiss, as errors racked up for him. Dimitrov only claimed his first set from Federer in Brisbane at the start of this year, and backed that up with another.

But the momentum switched back as Dimitrov started to struggle with his arm after tweaking something, getting treatment, and losing the third set fairly rapidly.

The fourth set saw him handover another break, and then have to fight like mad to hold on to his serve from some determined Federer pressure. Despite regaining some composure to hang on to his serve with a love game afterwards, forcing Federer to serve the match out, it was an easy finish at the end for Federer, who also clocked up his 300th Slam win.

After the match, he said: “It’s very exciting, I must tell you. Like when I reached 1,000 last year, it was a big deal for me. Not something I ever aimed for or looked for, but when it happens, it’s very special. Yeah, you look deeper into it, I guess, where it’s all happened and how. Yeah, so it’s very nice. I’m very happy.”

The defending champions would take centre stage once more this evening, as the schedule fought to catch up on itself and to try and get the singles matches anyway out of the way before the weekend.