Kevin Mitchell on the men’s action from Melbourne on Saturday:
And with that, I’m done. The live sport doesn’t end there, inevitably – there’s football to follow right now, right here. Bye!
Hsieh wins, and Radwanska is out!
Radwanska has advantage but then double faults to surrender it, and Hiseh takes the next two points to win it 6-2, 7-5! She’ll play Angelique Kerber in round four.
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At 30-30, the keyest of key points, both players try to play hard but safe. A long rally ends with Radwanska hitting into the net to set up match point, but then a strong first serve saves it.
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From 30-0 it’s now 30-0, Hsieh hitting two clean winners, the latest a lob that left Radwanska stranded at the net.
The live blog is winding down, but I’ll hang on until the end of the second set on the Margaret Court Arena. Hsieh won the first set 6-2, and leads 6-5 in the second, with Radwanska serving to stay in the match but with the wind behind her.
Over on the Margaret Court Arena, Radwanska has fought her way back into the second set, and she’s currently serving to make it 4-4.
Federer plays Marton Fucsovics in the fourth round. The 25-year-old’s Hungarian’s current ranking of 80 is the best of his career. He and Federer have never played.
Roger Federer speaks!
What was the difference between us? My head’s still spinning from the match point when I got so lucky. I was able to stay a bit more on the offensive than maybe he was, and maybe protecting my own serve a little bit better than him. The match was close. You focus to the very end. It’s a terrible answer.
Expectations are different this year. I’m coming in this year very fit, very well equipped, knowing that five sets are not an issue. The Berdych match [in the third round last year] was really key to showing myself that I can play a great match and maybe I can do it again and again. I don’t know if that’s how it’s going to happen this year, but so far so good.
Roger Federer breaks and wins in straight sets!
Third set: Federer 6-2, 7-5, 6-4 Gasquet* (*denotes server) With successive shots Federer gradually pushes his opponent wider and wider, eventually forcing an error. 0-15. Then they trade backhands for a while before Federer eventually runs round one, goes down the line and comes to the net for an easy winning volley. 0-30. But an unforced error lets Gasquet into the game, and an excellent forehand winner brings him level.
When he wins the next point as well Gasquet recycles the ball, and inevitably loses the next one. A brilliant backhand and a smashed winner gives Federer break and match point; again they trade backhands, again Federer eventually runs round one, but in so doing he opens up the whole court and by failing to hit a winner presents Gasquet with an easy chance to win it himself. It is a temporary reprieve: a backhand down the line brings up a second match point, and Federer takes that one!
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Third set: Federer* 6-2, 7-5, 5-4 Gasquet (*denotes server) Federer holds to love in the blink of an eye (the game took almost exactly one minute). Gasquet will serve to stay in the match.
Third set: Federer 6-2, 7-5, 4-4 Gasquet* (*denotes server) Gasquet has got into the habit of reusing balls that he’s just hit winners with. It doesn’t seem to work very well – he goes 15-0 up, and then back to 15-15; 30-15 up, and back to 30-30. Then Federer hits another unforced forehand error, and Gasquet wins the game with an unreturnable first serve. Back to level pegging in this set, to Gasquet’s great credit.
Third set: Federer* 6-2, 7-5, 4-3 Gasquet (*denotes server) The game starts with a ludicrously wide first serve; the ball disappears off screen where something happens to make the crowd “ooh” and “aaah” for a while. I can only guess what happened out there, and I’m going with a juggling possum.
Gasquet focuses here on Federer’s forehand, with varying results: three winners, a couple unforced errors. He scraps his way to deuce, and to advantage – his first break point of the day. He can’t convert, but a wildly mishit Federer backhand later he has another – and this he wins!
Meanwhile, drama on Margaret Court, where the umpire overruled and Radwanska got quite upset about it. As they talked the umpire revealed he didn’t remember what had actually happened, and somehow it seems his overrule was undone, and they ended up replaying the point. Radwanska still lost the game though, and is 0-2 down in the second set, having also had a medical time out.
Third set: Federer 6-2, 7-5, 4-2 Gasquet* (*denotes server) Gasquet hits a fine crosscourt passing shot but still somehow loses the point, Federer lunging to get the ball over the net, and Gasquet racing forward to reach it but hitting wide. But from 0-15 he holds to 15, thanks mainly to some excellent serving.
Third set: Federer* 6-2, 7-5, 4-1 Gasquet (*denotes server) At 30-30 Gasquet is sniffing break point – he hasn’t had one of those yet – but then Federer, who has tended to serve wide on that wing, goes down the line and the return is begging to be put away, and is. A fine forehand return drags the game to deuce, but a phenomenally controlled stretching backhand volley and a forehand winner end the game.
Third set: Federer 6-2, 7-5, 3-1 Gasquet* (*denotes server) Federer pounces upon Gasquet’s first serve, immediately taking control of the point and never relaxing his grip. But it goes downhill for him from there, the game featuring as it does a forehand mishit into the crowd, a backhand mishit into the net and a Gasquet ace to conclude.
Third set: Federer* 6-2, 7-5, 3-0 Gasquet (*denotes server) A couple of unforced errors from Federer turn 30-0 into 30-30 but a strong service sets up game point, and he then forces Gasquet into a desperate, stretching forehand that loops up, bounces just over the net, and is then slammed into space.
Third set: Federer 6-2, 7-5, 2-0 Gasquet* (*denotes server) Oh dear. At 15-30 Gasquet hits his first serve slightly long, challenges the call, fails and promptly double faults. Federer’s drop forehand wins him the first break point.
Meanwhile on Margaret Court, Radwanska has been broken for a second time and, in so doing, lost the first set 6-2 to Hsieh.
Third set: Federer* 6-2, 7-5, 1-0 Gasquet (*denotes server) Gasquet hits a gorgeous backhand passing shot at 30-0, but that’s as good as it gets for him, the one hiccup in Federer’s hold.
Federer hit 57% first serves in that set to Gasquet’s 73%, 10 unforced errors to Gasquet’s 7, and 13 winners to Gasquet’s 14, and won the set.
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Federer breaks to take the second set 7-5!
Second set: Federer 6-2, 7-5* Gasquet (*denotes server) Hawk-Eye is back, and Gasquet celebrates with a couple of challenges, which don’t really work out for him. He’s always on the back foot in this game; it’s 0-15, then 15-30, then 30-40 – an excellent backhand passing shot down the line to set up break point – at which point he hits a forehand just long. He challenges that one as well, in desperation rather than genuine belief, and it’s in vain.
Second set: Federer* 6-2, 6-5 Gasquet (*denotes server) Federer also takes a 40-0 before losing a point, and then another, at which point Gasquet wildly mishits a forehand return to end the game.
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Second set: Federer 6-2, 5-5* Gasquet (*denotes server) Gasquet has only lost seven points on his serve in this set. One of them was in this game, a backhand slapped into the net, but he was 40-0 up by then.
Second set: Federer* 6-2, 5-4 Gasquet (*denotes server) Federer wins the game to 15, the four points he won requiring four serves (two of them aces), one forehand winner and a volley.
Second set: Federer 6-2, 4-4 Gasquet* (*denotes server) If Gasquet’s focus wavered at the end of the previous game there’s no sign of it here, as he motors into a 40-0 lead. A fine Federer forehand and a double fault constitutes a mid-game wobble, but an excellent first serve leads to an easy put-away and it’s 4-4.
Second set: Federer* 6-2, 4-3 Gasquet (*denotes server) Federer starts with an ace out wide; Gasquet wants to challenge but is unable to. And at 15-15 another serve out wide, which Gasquet returns but in so doing leaves himself hopelessly out of position. The Frenchman hits a lovely backhand winner from midcourt, but then Federer serves out wide again; it’s called out but the umpire overrules, and again Gasquet wants to challenge but can’t. He’s clearly upset about this, and it’s no surprise when an unforced error then surrenders the game.
Second set: Federer 6-2, 3-3 Gasquet* (*denotes server) Before the game begins the umpire explains that Hawk-Eye is down, so there will be no challenges. Federer wins the opening point, almost toying with his opponent as he forces him around the court, left and then right, deep and then forward. From 15-30 though the Frenchman hits an ace and then two fine forehand winners.
Second set: Federer* 6-2, 3-2 Gasquet (*denotes server) Federer serves wide to Gasquet’s backhand, then advances to put away a forehand volley into an empty court. Classic serve-and-volley tennis, of the highest standard. He wins the game 40-30, with an excellently-controlled drop-volley from knee height, Gasquet’s perfectly decent attempt at a pass bringing no success whatsoever.
Second set: Federer 6-2, 2-2 Gasquet* (*denotes server) Gasquet’s playing pretty well here, really. He’s seizing upon any mistakes and making the most of his opportunities. There just haven’t been many of them.
So this article about facial recognition software in tennis was interesting. The scientists “organised the images into seven categories – focused, fired up, elation, dejection, anxious, annoyance, anger – after examining facial movements such as jaw drops, blinking, brow raising or lowering, lip tightening and nose wrinkling. From there they established emotional profiles of the ‘big four’ men’s players, Federer, Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray, at last year’s Australian Open and compared them to the results of each point. For Nadal, big displays of negative emotion after one point was likely to reduce his chances of hitting back and winning the next, while the outwardly cool Federer was 17 per cent more likely to win the following point after showing elation at hitting a winner.”
So Federer, to summarise, plays better when he’s playing well.
Second set: Federer* 6-2, 2-1 Gasquet (*denotes server) Federer cruelly forces Gasquet deep behind the baseline on his forehand wing and then hits a drop shot to the other side, and the Frenchman’s long-distance (comparatively) sprint ends with an uncontrolled forehand. From 30-0 Gasquet draws level, thanks in part to a double fault, but a timid blocked return allows Federer to set up game point, which he takes in short order.
Second set: Federer 6-2, 1-1 Gasquet* (*denotes server) Federer hits a forehand approach that is nowhere near deep enough, and Gasquet slaps a winner down the line, and ends up holding to 15. Next up on the Margaret Court Arena, meanwhile, is Agnieszka Radwanska against Su-Wei Hsieh.
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Second set: Federer* 6-2, 1-0 Gasquet (*denotes server) The game starts with a long rally, which ends when Gasquet tosses up a weak defensive lob and Federer advances and lashes a power valley into the net from no distance at all. Federer then wins the next three points before serving into Gasquet’s forehand hitting zone; the ball whistles back past his ankles before he’s finished his follow-through. He can’t, however, hold back the tide. Meanwhile Novak Djokovic is in round four, having seen off Albert Ramos-Vinolas in style and comfort, 6-2, 6-3, 6-3.
Federer breaks again to win the first set 6-2!
First set: Federer 6-2 Gasquet* (*denotes server) Phwoar! Yum! Federer hits a down-the-line backhand of impeccable grace and beauty, on his way to a 0-40 lead and three set points. Gasquet hits a powder-puff second serve; Federer runs round it and hits a forehand down the same line but just wide. That’s one break point saved, but Gasquet’s serving doesn’t improve from there, and a double fault surrenders the set.
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First set: Federer* 5-2 Gasquet (*denotes server) At 40-15 Federer comes forward and hits a drop volley; Gasquet runs up, feints to hit it down the line and then clips crosscourt for a stylish winner. No matter, Federer aces to win the game.
@Simon_Burnton Federer still leaves me wide eyed at his effortless brilliance. My dad used to say “this Swiss buck is something else, mother of sweet lanterin Jaysus he’s some player.” That’s what I saying 2 my 21/2yr old twin boys who are more interested in The Paw Patrol.
— John McEnerney (@MackerOnTheMed) January 20, 2018
You’re right, of course, but he’d need a couple of four-legged sidekicks before he’s as exciting as Paw Patrol.
First set: Federer 4-2 Gasquet* (*denotes server) Gasquet serves wide; it’s called out, so it doesn’t matter that Federer’s return lands long. But Gasquet challenges, and the ball is shown to have clipped the very edge of the line. 15-0, and Gasquet accelerates from there.
First set: Federer* 4-1 Gasquet (*denotes server) Federer runs around his backhand twice to send inside-out forehands crosscourt, and then comes across to hit a deep approach shot to Gasquet’s backhand, only for the Frenchman to whip a perfect crosscourt passing shot to win the point. It’s a spectacular point, but it’s Federer who has the consistency.
First set: Federer 3-1 Gasquet* (*denotes server) A lovely rally sets up break point for Federer, the players trading powerful backhands before the Swiss forces his rival to stretch a little too far, but Federer then hits the net a couple of times to give Gasquet a game point. He then significantly overhits a forehand to bring us back to deuce. But an unforced error gives Federer another break point, and a poor second serve allows him to win it with a powerful forehand.
First set: Federer* 2-1 Gasquet (*denotes server) The pace of this is pretty wild, compared with the Kerber v Sharapova match. Neither player has lengthy pre-serve preparatory routines, and there haven’t been many rallies of note either. Meanwhile, Djokovic has just broken, and is 2-1 up in the third.
First set: Federer 1-1 Gasquet* (*denotes server) And Gasquet does likewise, in double-quick time, rushing from one point to the next and winning all of them.
First set: Federer* 1-0 Gasquet (*denotes server) Federer holds to love. Elsewhere, Berdych has completed a 6-3, 6-3, 6-2 win over Del Potro, and Djokovic has taken the second set against Ramos Vinolas; it’s currently 1-1 in the third.
Federer and Gasquet, meanwhile, are ready to go. Federer will serve.
While we wait for Gasquet v Federer to start, here’s a first-take report on Kerber’s thrashing of Sharapova.
Kerber speaks:
This court is so special for me, so I came out here and I was trying to enjoy every point and with you guys it’s even more special. I knew before the match it would be a tough one. I was really trying to play my game. I am so happy it is 2018 and not 2017 any more. I’m just trying to enjoy every moment right now. I learned a lot from the last 24 months. I had a great 2016 and last year was a little bit tougher, but everybody who knows me knows I never give up.
Angelique Kerber beats Maria Sharapova in two sets!
Second set: Sharapova 1-6, 3-6 Kerber* (*denotes server) Kerber starts with an ace. Sharapova hits wide, and then doesn’t even run after her return lands midcourt, allowing Kerbert to set up three match points. Sharapova sends a down-the-line forehand onto the line to force an error and save one, but then blazes a backhand wildly wide to end it!
Second set: Sharapova* 1-6, 3-5 Kerber (*denotes server) Sharapova lands her first serve precisely and perfectly on the line, down the middle. She couldn’t have placed it better had she walked over there and put it where she wanted it to go. Kerber challenges, but to no avail. But Sharapova’s confidence seems so brittle: she immediately double faults, overhits a forehand and then underhits a drop shot. That makes it 15-40, and she then nets an easy shot from mid-court to give up the game and give Kerber a chance to serve for the match.
Second set: Sharapova 1-6, 3-4 Kerber* (*denotes server) “Come on!” shouts Sharapova, as her forehand wins the point to make it 30-30. “Come on!” she shouts again, as her backhand return makes it 30-40. The crowd is getting noisier too, buzzing with excitement at the prospect that this might not be the one-sided encounter the first set had suggested. But Kerber doesn’t actually have to win any of the three points she needs to take the game; she just pressures Sharapova, who makes minor misjudgements. Still, this set is in the balance.
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Second set: Sharapova* 1-6, 3-3 Kerber (*denotes server) Sharapova holds to love! She wins the game with a thunder serve down the middle, and though Kerber just about gets it back she can barely control it, and Sharapova runs forward and slaps the ball across court at an acute angle.
Second set: Sharapova 1-6, 2-3 Kerber* (*denotes server) The first challenge of the match comes when Kerber’s forehand is called in, to Sharapova’s surprise – and the player turns out to be right. That’s the only point she gets, though, and Kerber wins the game with an excellent crosscourt backhand, which again is very close to the line but is too good to argue with this time.
Second set: Sharapova* 1-6, 2-2 Kerber (*denotes server) This is so frustrating from, and surely for, Sharapova, as she continues to alternate between great and grotty. There were a couple of great winners here, particularly a forehand from wide and sprinting wider, but also a couple of unforced errors. She should have breezed through the game, but still she holds to 30. Meanwhile, Djokovic has come back from the medical timeout apparently unaffected, and has broken to go 3-1 up in the second set. And Berdych has won the second set against Del Potro, also by six games to three.
Second set: Sharapova 1-6, 1-2 Kerber* (*denotes server) Hello! Kerber hits long and then, forced way wide by her opponent, does it again to go 0-30 down. Then Sharapova hits a good crosscourt backhand but Kerber could have struck a winner down the line, but hit the net. 0-40. Sharapova then basically wins the next point, forcing Kerber so far back and so far wide there seems no way back. There is, though: the German battles back and forces an error, and wins the next point as well, but then overhits a backhand and Sharapova squeals with relief, still in the match.
Second set: Sharapova* 1-6, 0-2 Kerber (*denotes server) Sharapova hits the ball into the top of the net to go 15-30 down – and 14-2 up on unforced errors – and pauses for a moment, struggling with how little reward she’s getting for all the effort, the grit and the power she’s currently showing. Then she double faults, misses her first serve and then hits a 15th unforced error to surrender the game.
Second set: Sharapova 1-6, 0-1 Kerber* (*denotes server) Kerber keeps the pedal to the metal, winning the first game of the second set in short order.
Meanwhile on Margeret Court Arena Novak Djokovic, 6-2, 2-1 up, has called a medical time out and a physio is attacking his left leg, focusing it seems on the hip.
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Angelique Kerber canters to the first set!
First set: Sharapova* 1-6 Kerber (*denotes server) All of which appears to take something out of Sharapova, who surrenders the first couple of points too easily and is then brutally and brilliantly passed by Kerber, four yards behind the baseline but just too precise and powerful. A netted forehand later, the set is over.
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First set: Sharapova 1-5 Kerber* (*denotes server) Sharapova comes out all guns blazing, bludgeoning shots at her opponent until she finally forces an error, but then she blazes a return into the net. Two excellent crosscourt forehands win Sharapova another point, and then she blazes a return wide. It’s a tale of hard-fought gains and easily-surrendered losses, and it’s not quite good enough. Eventually Kerber thunders a forehand into an open court to win the game.
Here’s some more reading for you.
First set: Sharapova* 1-4 Kerber (*denotes server) Phwoar! Kerber goes 30-0 up at the end of a brutal exchange of cross-court power-hitting from both players, which ends when Sharapova moves across to cover a shot down the line, and is wrong-footed when it goes the other way, and she doesn’t release he grip on the game from there. Sharapova eventually surrenders it with an overhit backhand.
First set: Sharapova 1-3 Kerber* (*denotes server) Kerber wins the first three points in double-quick time but then has to fight for a fourth, ending the longest point of the match so far by reaching an imperfect drop shot and touching the ball down the line. Meanwhile on the Margaret Court Arena, Djokovic started slowly but improved, and how: from 2-2 and struggling to hold serve, he won the first set 6-2.
First set: Sharapova* 1-2 Kerber (*denotes server) This is better. At 15-15 Sharapova plays by some distance her finest point of the match so far, shifting Kerber around the court before finally putting the ball out of reach. Then, an unforced error later, there’s a fine forehand down the line that bounces out of Kerber’s reach to take her to game point. She doesn’t win it, but then Kerber, in a point-winning position, hits a power volley long and she’s got another. She then develops a deep affinity for the net, hitting the ball into it twice, serving into it, and saving the break point by clipping the top of it and getting a lucky bounce. Finally, two excellent serves and a forehand of magnificent length later, she’s on the board.
Here’s Kevin Mitchell’s report on Ashleigh Barty’s defeat to Naomi Osaka:
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First set: Sharapova 0-2 Kerber* (*denotes server) Kerber is playing a different sport here: harder, faster, more aggressive, better. She streaks to a 40-0 lead but then misses a first serve and Sharapova reminds her that she’s there by, given a weak second serve to hit, pounding a forehand return down the line for a winner. It doesn’t help her much.
First set: Sharapova* 0-1 Kerber (*denotes server) In the blink of an eye Sharapova is 0-30 down, and though she hangs in the next point a little longer she loses it to, hitting up a desperate, lunging defensive shot from the back of the court that Kerber smashes; it goes too close to her opponent but Sharapova can’t get the ball in play. Then at 0-40 Kerber’s return is perfect, landing practically on Sharapova’s toes and she can’t control her reply.
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Del Potro saves a couple of break points and is on the board, 1-2 in the second set. Djokovic saves a couple of break points and is still fighting, 2-2 in the first set. And Sharapova is about to serve on the Rod Laver Arena.
Kerber and Sharapova are on court and warming up!
Ramos-Vinolas makes it 2-2, holding to love with the help of two gorgeous drop shots.
Berdych has broken Del Potro in the first game of the second set.
Djokovic ended up saving a break point on his own serve, and he would have lost it had Ramos-Vinolas hit a passing shot down the line rather than going crosscourt, with his opponent poorly position at the net. Instead he won that point, won the next with an excellent crosscourt backhand that landed on the back edge of two lines, and then hit an ace down the middle to finish the game.
Berdych has wrapped up the first set against Del Potro, six games to three.
Not so fast, Novak: Ramos-Vinolas won the next four points, and eventually held.
@Simon_Burnton Is the Sharapova v Kerber match delayed? #AusOpen
— Pratik (@fake_engineer7) January 20, 2018
There’s been a short delay because of the earlier session over-running. Shouldn’t be long now.
The Djokovic match is under way, and having held in the opening game he is now 0-40 up in the second.
On the Hisense Arena, Berdych has taken a 5-2 first-set lead over Del Potro.
The players are out on the Margaret Court Arena, where Djokovic v Ramos-Vinolas should be under way imminently.
Sharapova has reached four singles finals here and won one, precisely a decade ago. Angelique Kerber has played one final, and won it. They have played seven times, Kerber winning the last two but behind 4-3 overall.
Though I do like the idea of a banana replacing the calorie as the main measure of energy. It would be a lot easier for people to relate to.
Here’s my stat of the day. Halep and Davis spent three hours and 44 minutes thrashing the ball around the RLA for the honour of a place in the fourth round. Apparently Halep expended 18 bananas of energy in winning the match. I’d have thought that four hours of top-class tennis would be more than 18 bananas’ worth. Though I guess that’s 0.375 bananas, or a little over a third of a banana, per game. Still, I’d have guessed at about 30 bananas. And probably a few grapes as well.
She's known as one of the hardest working players in the world and today was no different...
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 20, 2018
Per @TennisAusGIG, @Simona_Halep expended as much energy in her match against Lauren Davis as eating 18 bananas🏃♀️🍌#AusOpen pic.twitter.com/wYCtJQiCuE
Morning/evening/whenever-it-is-where-you-are world!
Everything is a little out of kilter in Melbourne because of the Halep-Davis epic a little earlier, which will slightly delay the night session on the Rod Laver Arena. First up, though, we’ll have Angelique Kerber against Maria Sharapova on the RLA, while Novak Djokovic v Albert Ramos-Vinolas on the Margaret Court Arena. Meanwhile, Tomas Berdych and Juan Martin del Potro are three games in on the Hisense Arena, and going with serve.
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Preamble
Simon will be here shortly. Until then, re-live all of Friday’s action:
