Francesca Schiavone
Melbourne, Jan 23: It was pretty tough battle for Roger Federer to enter into the 27th consecutive grand slam quarter-final at the Australian Open on Sunday, but it was looking quite easy task in front of the clashes between Francesca Schiavone and Svetlana Kuzntesova. French Open champion had to stretch very hard as she took four hours and 44 minutes to beat her Russian colleague by 6-4, 1-6, and 16-14 in a Hisense Arena thriller and she was succeeded in claiming the place in the last eight, after the longest women’s grand slam match in the modern arena.
There was lot of expectations from Maria Sharapova, that she would be lasting longer but the former champion was knocked out from the tournament by in form German Andrea Petkovic, who defeated former world no 1 by 6-2, 6-3 in just 79 minutes. Roger Federer was succeeded in taking his career record to 10-0 over Spain’s Tommy Robredo as he beaten him by 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, and 6-2. In the red hot sun, the defending champion and 16 times grand slam winner won the first set in just 32 minutes without losing a point on his serve. But in the second round Roger started to tumble a bit as his forehand was in particular wayward most of the time and he gave an unlikely break to allow Robredo to equal the contest.
Federer was in no mood to give Robredo chance to come back into the game further and he kept his mind cool and calm to remain the title contender in the Australian Open. “I’m very happy that I’m still alive and going strong in the tournament,” said Federer. Federer’s next match will be against his close friend and Swiss born Stanislas Wawrinka in the last eight.
Tags: Australian Open, Francesca Schiavone, Grand Slam, Hisense Arena, Lawn Tennis, Melbourn, Roger Federer, Svetlana Kuzntesova, Tennis
