Sabalenka and Halep crash out of the Australian Open

(Tennis news) With only 5 days left for the final, the 2022 Australian Open is seeing more of the top seeds endanger their rankings as one more record was created at the opening Grand Slam. Last week it was Taylor Fritz and now it's Alizé Cornet who is making her first quarterfinal appearance at a major after 63 previous Grand Slam appearances. It is the most by any player and the 32 year old defeated Simona Halep to make it to the last eight at Melbourne.

In women’s singles, Cornet was meeting Halep for the 5th time and recorded her fourth victory over the Romanian. A second break of serve in the middle of the set gave the 32 year old the lead and Halep came back in the next set by breaking the serve four times as it was the first time a deciding set was needed in their career meeting. Halep lost a crucial break point in the 6th game and in the very next game hit a backhand into the net to give the break to Cornet. Cornet defeated Halep 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.

 "I'm not closing any door to keep going," Cornet said. "But I gave so much to this game and to this tennis life. I feel I'm pretty much ready for the next chapter. At least by the end of the year, I think I'll be ready."

Kaia Kanepi was in the fourth round for the first time at the Australian Open and celebrated it with a victory over Aryna Sabalenka. The world number 2 had faced Kanepi last year at Melbourne and had lost in three sets. It was the result for Sablenka as the world number 115 made the quarterfinals of a major after 5 years. Kanepi was winning the short rallies but both the players hit over 30 winners in a 2 and half hour span.

Kanepi seemed to have positioned the ball better against Sabalenka even though both of them had heavy groundstrokes. Sabalenka had 21 unforced errors in the third set and was even down 2-4 but still came back to make it to the tie break. At the tie break it was just not enough as Kanepi progressed into the last eight. Kanepi defeated Sabalenka 5-7, 6-2, 7-6 (10-7).

In men’s doubles, the Australian pair of Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis continued their magical run when they beat 6th seeds Tim Putz and Michael Venus to reach the semifinals. The crowds were chanting every time the player won a point as the Kia Arena made sure the pair did not lose an inch of motivation at any point of time. Kyrgios and Kokkinakis defeated Tim and Michael 7-5, 3-6, 6-3.

Also read: Zverev, Sakkari, and Badosa go down in straight sets at Australia

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