I love a feel-good Slam story and we’ve had so many to enjoy over the past few years on the women’s side. Without doubt, the pleasant surprise of this 2017 tournament has been Mirjana Lucic-Baroni. After storming past Agnieszka Radwanska in the second round, Lucic-Baroni has gone on to reach the quarter-finals of the Australian Open.
Two huge stats:
Prior to this week, Lucic-Baroni had only ever won one main draw match at the Australian Open which was 19 years ago in 1998.
Lucic-Baroni is into her first Slam quarter-final since 1999 when she had her career-best result at Wimbledon by reaching the semi-finals.
Lucic-Baroni beat Jennifer Brady, 6-4 6-2 in the fourth round on Monday. Her post-match interview was an absolute delight. Mirjana is inspiring and I just love her attitude.
A word for Jennifer Brady who had a huge breakthrough tournament. The American had never played a Slam main draw so to go onto win three matches was an incredible effort.
I’d tagged Barbora Strycova to get a set off Serena Williams in my predictions and while it was straight sets, it was Serena’s tightest match of the tournament so far. Serena’s serve wasn’t firing and she made quite a few errors off the forehand side. However, she came through for the win which is all that matters.
This is mesmerising to watch over and over again!
Loved this from Barbora.
Johanna Konta, aka the Bourne-slayer, maintained her stunning recent form with a ninth consecutive victory, beating Ekaterina Makarova, 6-1 6-4. It was Konta’s fourth win in a row over Makarova and all FOUR have been at ‘Bourne tournaments. I loved the crowd’s reaction in her post-match interview when they announced her quarter-final opponent!
This was so thoughtful from Jo in press. Her ability to perform in the pressure moments has been nothing short of extraordinary over the past six months.
After the match, Jo met Jo!
The final fourth round match saw Karolina Pliskova beat Daria Gavrilova, 6-3 6-3.
Sooo the quarter-finals are all set.
Serena Williams will play Johanna Konta in the quarter-finals…. BRING. IT. ON.
To be honest, i’ve been underwhelmed by the women’s matches over the past few days. The fourth round produced eight straight set matches with not even one tiebreak. I’m so excited for Serena v Jo and i’m hoping it could be “the one” that sets this women’s draw alive. A preview to come soon…
The quarter-finals of the women’s doubles are all set.
Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic (1) v Ashleigh Barty and Casey Dellacqua
Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina (3) v Andrea Hlavackova and Peng Shuai (12)
Mirjana Lucic-Baroni and Andrea Petkovic v Eri Hozumi and Miyu Kato
Raquel Atawo and Xu Yifan (11) v Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova (2)
Lots to like about with this draw and i’m circling that top match with thick red ink. It wouldn’t surprise me to see Barty and Dellacqua go all the way, but I also like Hlavackova and Peng, and Mattek-Sands and Safarova in this draw.
Tuesday will be the first quarter-finals day. A preview for the second match up on Rod Laver Arena between Garbiñe Muguruza and CoCo Vandeweghe is now up on the blog.
The other quarter-final will be contested between Venus Williams and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and I have NO CLUE who’s going to take this one! First instinct was Venus, though Pavlyuchenkova has started the year in decent form. Venus leads the head-to-head, 3-2 – they’ve only played once in the last seven years with Venus winning a three setter in Montreal. I think Venus feels like the safer pick, but i’m probably leaning 55-45 to Pavs. Venus is a legend but i’d actually love to see Pavs break new ground at a Slam.
And finally, I love an around-the-net post winner and we’ve had two in two days from Roger and Rafa!
Moo's Tennis Blog 
I would Love to see Casey and Ash win the doubles together. Casey has always said she has unfinished business and wants a doubles grand slam. Would be perfect to do it now. I have a feeling this is her last year in tour sadly, so would be great to get the win at home.
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I love Garcia and Mladenovic, but I’d be okay with the two Oz ladies beating them.
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Oh I hope not Casey’s last year although wouldn’t surprise me. It would be a great storyline if they could do it!
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Super impressive turn around from Garcia & Mladenovic. Kiki really started out playing BADLY, neither were making enough returns or serves and I’ve noticed that when Mladenovic plays erratic tennis, Caro seems to overpress trying to put in the work for both of them. But as often happens in their doubles matches, their groundstrokes began to find their deadly targets. In the second and third sets they hit 21 winners to just 7 errors!
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Oh my…I love that Konta is doing so well. Seems like she is a really humble and nice player. I think she can give Serena a real scare, just not sure whether she could win as I expect Serena to be extra motivated!
Btw: Did you realize there are only powerful ballstrikers left in the quarters? 🙂
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Being that Konta plays so much like Vika, I think we can definitely expect her to put up some serious fight against Serena. She just needs to keep putting balls back with depth and accuracy and it’ll drive Serena nuts.
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I agree on wanting to see Pavyluchenkova break new ground at a slam, but I just want Venus to do well! She’s only been to the AO final once, and lost to Serena. I think it’d be amazing to see Vee pull of a slam win! That’s my hope for this AO
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I want them both to win! 🙂
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Serena played the worst match of her life yesterday. Her first serve was only 34 percent. Her return game was excellent. And her unforced errors was just ridiculous. The 4 quarter final matches are very interesting. It will be big hitting and aggressive playing. Every match I’ve seen Serena played 11 am, she plays tired. Konta definitely playing like top 4 player.
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With reference to Murphy’s comment on power players making up the QF field, do you guys classify her as a powerful or defensive player cause she has a good mix of both, she doesnt play on one side of the spectrum, she knows how to play offensive and defensive at the same time, reminds me of Vika and Ana.
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Her as in Konta
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Her power play currently shades any defensive/counter punching game. Even her current ace stats at the Aussie Open puts her 5th with an interesting bunch of players lead by Pliskova, Serena, Brady, CoCo, then Konta. She is smacking those balls.
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