Day 4 was a strange old day at the Australian Open as there were delays for both heat and rain.  The Extreme Heat Policy finally came into action as play was suspended for much of the afternoon resulting in many matches being played until the early hours of Friday morning in Melbourne.  There were some fantastic matches, which I will try to cover in a review post coming later tonight.  My risky tip on Day 4 was Ajla Tomljanovic to beat Sloane Stephens and she came close! Tomljanovic was unable to hold her nerve when serving for the match and eventually lost, 3-6 6-2 7-5.

Poll Results: 61% of you correctly went for Stephens to beat Tomljanovic and 63% were right with going for Dimitrov over Lu. 

1. Sam Stosur v Ana Ivanovic (Women’s, R3)

Sam Stosur

The marquee match of the day will see home favourite, Sam Stosur go up against Ana Ivanovic with the winner facing the likelihood of playing Serena Williams in the fourth round.  Considering the last couple of years in Australia, Stosur has done really well this year.  No matter how injured or tired, Tsvetana Pironkova was, Stosur deserves credit for a 6-2 6-0 victory over the Sydney champion, which snapped the Bulgarian player’s streak of 9 straight wins.  Stosur receives so much stick for her performances down under and her mentality playing at home just seemed destroyed.  However a trip to Hobart, where she racked up three morale boosting wins seems to have helped her at Melbourne this year.

Ivanovic has yet to drop a set in her first two matches and is still unbeaten in 2014 as she cruised past Annika Beck, 6-1 6-2 in the second round.  The head-to-head suggests that this match could go either way.  Stosur has 4 wins to Ivanovic’s 3.   They played each other in consecutive weeks at the end of 2013 in Moscow and Sofia, and split matches.  It will be an interesting dynamic with a sure-to-be colourful home support for Stosur.  I am interested to see how Sam copes with it and also whether Ivanovic can play to her potential in such a heated environment.  All in all, it should be a tight match and I see the Serb, maintaining her winning streak in 2014.

Prediction: Ivanovic to beat Stosur in 3 sets

2. Angelique Kerber v Alison Riske (Women’s, R3)

Alison Riske

The transformation of Alison Riske in the last year has been quite staggering.  Exactly a year ago she was languishing at 190 in the rankings having failed to qualify for the Australian Open.  One year on, she is at a career best world number 53 and finds herself in the third round of a Grand Slam for the third consecutive time.  2014 has started as brightly as 2013 and this week promises more points to add to her booming points tally.  Yesterday, Riske produced a terrific performance of attacking and consistent tennis to take out Yanina Wickmayer, 6-1 6-1 in just 57 minutes.

Riske will now play Angelique Kerber, who got past Alla Kudryavtseva in two sets after a shaky opening match that saw her dished a second set bagel by Jarmila Gajdosova.  Riske, who has proven she is so much more than a grass court specialist, is playing with confidence and Kerber will need to be ready.  I like the way that German player has started the season although her run to Sydney may have taken some energy out of her legs.  I believe that Riske will take a set in this one, but Kerber should ultimately come through and take advantage of a very nice draw…

Prediction: Kerber to beat Riske in 3 sets

3. Tommy Robredo v Richard Gasquet (Men’s, R3)

Richard Gasquet

Tommy Robredo continued to demonstrate what an awesome competitor he was on day 3 as he booked his place in the last 32.  Robredo came into this tournament with no matches under his belt as he was forced to pull out of the Hopman Cup through injury.  He came through an extra-time finish with Lukas Rosol in the first round, surviving from two sets to one down to win, 6-1 6-7(9) 3-6 7-6(5) 8-6.  In the second round, Robredo beat the serve-and-volleying, Julien Benneteau in four sets.

The Spaniard now faces Richard Gasquet, who has really flown under the radar in this tournament so far.  The Frenchmen, who was troubled with a back injury in Doha, has not dropped a set this week and beat Nikolay Davydenko in the second round, which featured one tremendous point (see below).  I haven’t watched any of his matches this week so I cannot say whether he is still bothered by that injury.  Robredo continues to shine at the age of 31, but I think this will be the end of road for him.

Prediction: Gasquet to beat Robredo in 3 sets

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTeBgP8uULI

Women’s 3rd Round AO Predictions

Serena Williams to beat Daniela Hantuchova in 2 sets

Casey Dellacqua to beat Jie Zheng in 3 sets

Eugenie Bouchard to beat Lauren Davis in 2 tight sets

Li Na to beat Lucie Safarova in 2 tight sets

Ekaterina Makarova to beat Monica Niculescu in 3 sets

Flavia Pennetta to beat Mona Barthel in 3 sets

Men’s 3rd Round AO Predictions

Tomas Berdych to beat Damir Dzumhur in 3 sets

Edouard Roger-Vasselin to beat Kevin Anderson in 4 sets

Florian Mayer to beat Jerzy Janowicz in 4 sets

David Ferrer to beat Jeremy Chardy in 5 sets

Sam Querrey to beat Fabio Fognini in 3 sets

Novak Djokovic to beat Denis Istomin in 3 sets

If I have time, I’ll post a review of Day 4 later tonight