Novak Djokovic (in pic) fine-tuned his voice and his game at the Australian Open on Saturday, advancing to the fourth round with a straight-sets win over Fernando Verdasco and then urging the crowd of 15,000 to sing Happy Birthday to his mother back home.
After his 7-6 (8), 6-3, 6-4 win, the four-time Australian champion had a lengthy on-court interview with Jim Courier discussing a range of topics including his childhood memories of tennis, when “I was constructing little trophies out of plastic and pretending I was a Wimbledon champion.”
The flashback jogged his memory. It was January 24, his mother Dijana’s birthday. “It’s my mom’s birthday, can you sing happy birthdayIJ” he asked the crowd, before singing the whole song live.
The Williams sisters had their own celebration of sorts, progressing together to the fourth round of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time since Wimbledon in 2011. Two other Americans joined them, with 19-year-old Madison Keys upsetting two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova with a 6-4, 7-5 victory and Madison Brengle beating Coco Vandeweghe 6-3, 6-2 in an all-US match. The two Madisons will meet in the fourth round, meaning one will become a first-time major quarterfinalist.
When 18-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams noticed that older sister Venus was advancing to the second week, it inspired her own 4-6, 6-2, 6-0 win over No. 26-ranked Elina Svitolina.
When top-ranked Serena walked onto Rod laver Arena, Venus was already down a set and a break on Margaret Court Arena. Venus, who was diagnosed with an auto-immune condition called Sjogren’s syndrome in 2011 and has struggled at the highest level ever since, rallied for a 4-6, 7-6 (3), 6-1 win over Camila Giorgi, and that inspired her sister.
“I thought, ‘Wow, she’s been through so much with her illness, with everything that she’s had to do. Gosh, if she can do it, I’m perfectly healthy, I’m fine. I should be able to do it, too,” the five-time Australian Open champion said. “It just got me so motivated, really helped me push through those next two sets at a rapid rate.”
She’ll have to be at the top of her game in the next round she meets No. 24 Garbine Muguruza, who beat her in the second round at the French Open last year. Muguruza defeated Timea Bacsinszky.
Azarenka, the winner here in 2012 and 2013 but who is unseeded this year because of an injury-interrupted 2014, had a 6-4, 6-4 win over No. 25 Barbora Zahlavova Strycova. Cibulkova beat No. 19 Alize Cornet 7-5, 6-2.
On the men’s side, defending champion Stan Wawrinka had a 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 win over Jarkko Nieminen and will have a score to settle in the next round against Guillermo Garcia-lopez, who beat Vasek Pospisil in straight sets.
No. 8 Milos Raonic fired 22 aces in a 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 win over Benjamin Becker and will next play No. 12 Feliciano lopez, who had a 7-6 (6), 6-4, 7-6 (3) win over Jerzy Janowicz.
No. 5 Kei Nishikori, the US Open finalist, beat Steve Johnson 6-7 (7), 6-1, 6-2, 6-3 and will next meet former French Open finalist David Ferrer, who struggled to finish off Gilles Simon in four sets.
The 34-year-old, seven-time major winner Venus next faces sixth-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska, who advanced with a 6-0, 7-5 win over Varvara lepchenko.
“I like to win titles... that’s what I play for,” she said. “So, yes, it’s great to be in the second week but is fourth round my goal when I come to these tournamentsIJ No.”
Bhupathi out of mixed doubles
Veteran Mahesh Bhupathi went out of the mixed doubles competition following a first-round loss, even as India’s junior tennis players began their campaign on a positive note on Saturday.
Bhupathi and his Australian partner Jarmila Gajdosova frittered away early advantage to lose 6-4, 6-7 (7), 8-10 to Chinese Taipei’s Hao-Ching Chan and Brit Jamie Murray in a contest which lasted one hour and 40 minutes.
In the junior competition, Pranjala Yadlapalli defeated South African Katie Poluta 6-4, 6-3 to enter the girls’ singles competition. Among the boys, Sumit Nagal defeated American Michael Mmoh 6-2, 4-6, 6-4.
In another girls’ singles match, Ojasvinee Singh lost 6-0, 4-6, 1-6 to Olivia Hauger.
Stan Wawrinka and a selfie to remember
last year, after winning the Australian Open, he vowed that upon his return in 2015 he would go straight to the corridor in Rod laver Arena known as the Walk of Champions, to take a picture of himself standing beside his larger-than-life image on the wall. And that is what Wawrinka did. He took a selfie. “When I came back the first time here in the locker room, I had all the big memories from last year,” Wawrinka said Saturday, after cruising to his third straight sets victory with a 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 win over Jarkko Nieminen. “I came to see my picture and to take a picture with me with myself over there.” “That’s the best feeling. To see my picture over there with all these amazing champions,” said the Swiss, who has spent most of his career in the shadow of countryman Roger Federer.