Federer and Kerber ousted in day of upsets at Australian Open
Published 12:40 am Monday, January 21, 2019
MELBOURNE, Australia (TNS) — Stefanos Tsitsipas pulled off a stunning victory over Roger Federer in the fourth round of the Australian Open on Sunday, defeating the defending champion 6-7 (11-13), 7-6 (7-3), 7-5, 7-6 (7-5).
The upset came just hours after second seed Angelique Kerber was demolished 6-0, 6-2 in the women’s draw by unseeded Danielle Collins, in what had previously been the biggest shock of the tournament.
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Federer, who was bidding for his 21st Grand Slam title, started off on the front foot, winning his service games easily while the Greek 20-year-old was forced to defend multiple break points.
Though Federer never managed to convert, it was only in the tiebreak of the second set where the tide began to turn, and suddenly the Swiss was the one under pressure from the Greek, who mimicked Federer’s own tactic of getting up close to the net.
The match was also not without rancor. In the very first game Tsitsipas was docked a first serve after two time violations.
And moments later Federer got into a dispute with the umpire over a potential challenge, accusing him of favoring Tsitsipas.
“I think you have a bad conscience because you gave him two warnings,” Federer was heard saying.
Aside from the anger, the match was in many ways a replay of their first, played just a couple of weeks ago at the Hopman Cup in Perth.
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Federer won that battle in straight sets, but was pushed to a tiebreak in each — this time however, it was he who lost out in two of the three tiebreaks.
Tsitsipas has already been touted as a future Grand Slam champion, after he shot up the rankings last year from 91 to 15 and won the Next Gen ATP Finals in November.
After his win on Sunday he said he was “the happiest man on earth.”
“Roger is a legend of our sport, (I have) so much respect for him,” he said in an on-court interview. “I’ve been idolizing him since the age of six. It was a dream come true just being on Rod Laver (Arena) facing him.”
Federer pair tribute to the younger man, saying, “I see him definitely being high up in the game for a long time. That was a good night for him tonight.”
Of the 12 breakpoints he failed to convert he said: “It definitely didn’t go the way I was hoping on the breakpoints. I also didn’t break him at the Hopman Cup, so clearly something is wrong how I return him, what I’m trying to do.”
Tsitsipas takes on Roberto Bautista Agut for a place in the semifinal after the Spaniard took down sixth seed and last year’s finalist Marin Cilic in a five-set battle 6-7 (6-8), 6-3, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4.
Earlier in the day, 25-year-old Collins, ranked 35 in the world, took just 20 minutes to bagel Kerber in the first set, leaving her visibly shell-shocked.
In the second set the German failed to come up with a response to the big-hitting American, who fired 29 winners compared to just six from the 2016 champion.
“I may not have won a Grand Slam match before this but I gotta tell you, I think it’s gonna keep happening,” Collins said in a post-match interview.
Kerber later told reporters, “It was completely not my day.”
Collins faces Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the quarterfinal, after the Russian ousted fifth seed Sloane Stephens 6-7 (3-7), 6-3, 6-3 in the final upset of the day.
Australia’s world No. 15 Ash Barty meanwhile ousted Maria Sharapova 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 to keep local hopes alive.