Nadal flying the flag as Spain's "Armada" hits the rocks

Rafael Nadal will seek a place in the semi-finals of the Australian Open at a scheduled time of 5am CET on Tuesday against Tomas Berdych, over who the Spaniard holds an 18-3 win record overall and to whom he hasn’t lost in 17 matches stretching back to 2006, although as his uncle and coach Toni noted: “History doesn’t win games.”

Also on Rod Laver Arena in quarter-final action is Andy Murray, who will take on Australian 19-year-old Nick Kyrgios, who memorably defeated Nadal at last year’s Wimbledon. Before both men’s draw matches third seed Simona Halep faces 10^th seed Ekatarina Makarova, while Eugenie Bouchard takes on childhood hero Maria Sharapova, who the Canadian has not beaten in their three previous meetings.

Nadal is the last Spanish player in either draw at Melbourne Park after Monday’s fourth round matches. David Ferrer went down in straight sets against Japanese world number five Kei Nishikori. Ferrer, who had reached the last eight in Melbourne for the past four consecutive years, lifted his 22^nd ATP title in Doha before the Australian Open.

Also bowing out in the fourth round were Feliciano López and Guillermo García López. The former took big-serving Canadian Milos Raonic to five sets in a match featuring 51 aces but the Spanish 12^th seed was unable to prevent Raonic from becoming the first Canadian to reach this stage in Melbourne in the Open Era. Despite keeping his unforced error count down and his first serve percentage respectable, López eventually succumbed to Raonic’s hammer blows from the baseline, the Canadian hitting 81 winners to López’s 48.

García López also gave defending champion Stan Wawrinka a tough match, taking the second set and forcing the Swiss into a tie-break in the first and last. However, Wawrinka’s experience told as the game edged over three hours and held his nerve to edge García López 10-8 in the final breaker.

Garbiñe Muguruza took Serena Williams all the way but was unable to replicate her stunning victory over the perennial Grand Slam winner at last year’s French Open, where the current world number 24 beat Williams 6-2, 6-2, avenging a crushing defeat in the 2013 Australian Open when she managed to take just two games from the number one.

On this occasion, Muguruza’s powerful serve and ground strokes overwhelmed Williams in the first set before the five-time champion got into her stride. Williams eventually prevailed 2-6, 6-3, 6-2.

Also through to the quarters of a Grand Slam for the first time since 2010 is Venus Williams, who overcame the standard stubborn resistance expected of fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska, 6-3, 2-6, 6-1. Venus will play unseeded US teenager Madison Keys for a place in the last four after the right-hander continued her incredible run with a straight sets victory over compatriot and namesake Madison Brengle. If both Williams sisters progress, they will face each other in a Grand Slam for the first time since the 2009 Wimbledon final. Serena leads the sisterly head-to-head 14-11 overall, although Venus won their last encounter on the hard courts of Charleston last season.

In the men’s draw, the winner of the match between Nadal and Berdych will go on to play either Murray or Kyrgios, while Nishikori plays Wawrinka and Novak Djokovic faces the thunderous serve of Raonic in the other half of the draw.

from Últimas noticias | Diario AS http://ift.tt/1tgZjUO

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