Mass destruction

Australian Open 2008 Day 7:



It was a great day for the favourites with: Henin, Sharapova, Jankovic and Serena Williams all winning their matches comfortably in straight sets.
As far as Henin and Jankovic it was not a big surprise, both playing unseeded opponents (qualifier Hsieh and crowd favourite Dellacqua respectively), the other two results were quite shocking.
The highly anticipated match up between two blond Russians Sharapova and Dementieva was a huge disappointment. Sharapova took the control of the match from the start and from that moment on, never looked back, demolishing her older compatriot 6/2 6/0.
The last years finalist will now face Justine Henin for a spot in the semifinals.
It will be a repeat of the WTA-Championships final, which the No.1 player in the world won in three tight sets. Let's hope the girls can provide us once again with such a high standard tennis as they did at the end of last year.

Also through to the quarters is Serena Williams after destroying the Czech shooting star Nicole Vaidisova 6/3 6/4. It was a repeat of last years semifinal and once again it was the American, who found the magic. Vaidisova couldn't find any answer to the fenomenal pace of the younger Williams sister.

Because of the heavy rainfall yesterday, the organisors had to play catch-up and rearrange the schedule. Four of the 3rd round matches had to be played.
Hantuchova and Petrova advanced without losing a set. While the Slovak had no problems with Virginia Ruano-Pascual beating her 6/2 6/3, it was the Russian, who once again struggled. Petrova blew a set and 5/2 lead and squandered 5 matchpoints before closing out the match in a tiebreak.
Making their first appearances in the fourth round of a Grand Slam event are Marta Domachowska of Poland and Denmarks best - Caroline Wozniacki.Domachowska, a qualifier, who's on a 14 match winning streak, showed tremendous fighting skills, as she outedged the No.24 seed Na Li, who herself was on a pretty long - 7 match - winning streak. The Pole, who had a 0-2 win/loss record against the Chinese, managed to turn the match around after being totally dominated in the first set.
Domachowska started frustrating her opponent with magnificent forehand returns and very good serving (8 aces). At the end she won 2/6 6/2 6/4. The Pole will now face Venus Williams for a quarterfinal spot.
It will be the first time, that Poland will have two players in the fourth round of a major (the other being the Kuznetsova-killer - Agnieszka Radwanska).

We could be speaking of three Poles in the fourth round, 'coz Wozniacki originally comes from Poland, but plays for Denmark. The junior Wimbledon champion of 2007 won a tough three set battle against another girl with polish roots - Sabine Lisicki. The end score there: 4/6 6/4 6/3

~jachal