Maria Sharapova will face Eugenie Bouchard in the Australian Open quarter-finals after the pair won in contrasting styles on Sunday, according to BBC sport.
Canada’s Bouchard, the seventh seed, lost five straight games but recovered to beat Irina-CameliaBegu 6-1 5-7 6-2.
Russian second seed Sharapova was a more convincing 6-3 6-0 winner over Shuai Peng of China.
Rafael Nadal saved six set points in the first set before beating South Africa’s Kevin Anderson 7-5 6-1 6-4.
Andy Murray takes on GrigorDimitrov while teenager Nick Kyrgios hopes to maintain Australian interest in the men’s draw following compatriot Bernard Tomic’s defeat.
Bouchard recovered from an alarming mid-match slump that saw her drop five games in a row from 6-1 3-0 up, and eventually require a third set to see off Begu.
“It’s disappointing for me because I want to play so well and I want to be perfect,” said the 20-year-old. “That’s not possible. But I learned a lot from it and I’ll try to make sure it doesn’t happen next time.”
Next up is a fourth meeting with her childhood idol Sharapova, with the Russian 3-0 up in previous meetings, including a dramatic French Open semi-final last year.
“I definitely want to keep playing my game no matter what and really kind of take it to her, go for my shots,” said Bouchard.
Bernard Tomic might have struggled to lay a glove on Tomas Berdych, but he gave tournament schedulers both barrels.
The fact that Lleyton Hewitt was the only one of 10 Australian men in the draw to play on Rod Laver Arena by round four had caused a few raised eyebrows, and Tomic called out tournament direct Craig Tiley on the subject.
“I think the scheduling was ridiculous this year,” said Tomic. “Not just from my side, but for many players. I don’t know who was in charge of the schedule. Really, some of the matches I saw, it was just like, wow.”
Pushed on the issue, he added: “You’ll have to ask Craig Tiley. That’s the guy organizing everything. Apparently he’s the best.”
M.D