Roger Federer was in no mood to let a trend develop after the first real upsets of the week at the Australian Open yesterday and slapped down local upstart Bernard Tomic with authority to reach the fourth round.
Juan Martin del Potro stunned Federer to win the US Open in 2009 but the Argentine sixth seed was on the receiving end of the shock yesterday when an inspired Jeremy Chardy led a strong French charge into the last 16.
Serena Williams and Andy Murray never looked like losing sometimes challenging contests earlier in the day but defending champion Victoria Azarenka had a closer call and was forced to dig deep for her victory.
All eyes were on the evening match in Rod Laver Arena, however, where Tomic had been talking up his chances of translating his good early-season form into a victory over a player rated by many as the best to ever pick up a racket.
Tomic gave his best and came within two points of winning a second-set tiebreak but the 17-times grand-slam champion simply upped the gears, pulled out a couple of extraordinary winners, and raced away to a 6-4 7-6 6-1 victory.
“I had to be able to bring the whole repertoire to the court today,” said the second seed, who next faces Milos Raonic.
Del Potro battled back from two sets down to level his third-round contest but the mercurial Chardy grabbed a break in the decider and held his nerve to serve out for a 6-3 6-3 6-7 3-6 6-3 win.
After five days without any upsets of note at the year’s first grand slam, two came along within minutes.
As Chardy was packing up his rackets, Italian Andreas Seppi was securing his place as the Frenchman’s next opponent by wrapping up a 6-7 6-3 2-6 6-4 6-2 win over Croatian 12th seed Marin Cilic, a semi-finalist in 2010.
Azarenka, the women’s top seed, had to come back from a break down in the deciding set to avoid the same fate against injury-hampered American Jamie Hampton and her relief at her 6-4 4-6 6-2 win was clear.
“She took a medical time-out but she rips winners all over the place,” said Azarenka.
Williams, seeking a sixth title at Melbourne Park, also wobbled a bit at 3-0 down in the second set against world number 72 Ayumi Morita after losing her serve for the first time in the tournament.
The third seed showed no discomfort from the ankle strain she sustained in the opening round, however, and stormed back to win the next six games and dismiss the Japanese 6-1 6-3.
Murray berated himself for playing “nonsense” tennis at timesbut eventually broke down his Lithuanian practice partner Ricardas Berankis 6-3 6-4 7-5 after a tricky 132 minutes in the Melbourne sun.
“Sometimes when you are struggling, you get frustrated,” said the British third seed.
“I need to strike the ball better. My timing was off and I was leaving a lot of balls very short and allowing him to dictate some of the points.”
Meanwhile, Japanese Kimiko Date-Krumm’s fairytale run came to an end with a 6-2 7-6 defeat to Serbian Bojana Jovanovski, who was born two years after her 42-year-old opponent made her debut at Melbourne Park.