Jan. 24: Rafael Nadal stormed past Croatia’s Marin Cilic into the Australian Open quarterfinals on Monday in his bid to unite the Grand Slam titles, as Kim Clijsters and Andy Murray also went through.
World number one Nadal was in devastating touch against the 15th seed as he won 6-2, 6-4, 6-3.
Nadal, who caught a virus this month and sweated buckets in Saturday night’s encounter with Australian teen Bernard Tomic, said he was now feeling “perfect” just three matches away from a non-calendar year Grand Slam.
Earlier, Murray barely gave Austria’s Jurgen Melzer a look in his 6-3, 6-1, 6-1 win which maintained British hopes of ending a men’s Slam drought dating back to Fred Perry’s 1936 US Open victory.
Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov fought back from a set down to defeat Robin Soderling of Sweden 1-6, 6-3, 6-1, 4-6, 6-2 in what he called the performance of his life.
US Open champion Kim Clijsters remained firm favourite for the women’s title after battling past Russia’s Ekaterina Makarova 7-6 (7/3), 6-2, setting up a quarterfinal date with Pole Agnieszka Radwanska, who saved two match points before defeating Peng Shuai of China 7-5, 3-6, 7-5.
Second seed Zvonareva recovered from a slow start to ease past Iveta Benesova of the Czech Republic 6-4, 6-1 and move towards her third straight Grand Slam final.