Djokovic sees off spirited Simon to reach Australian Open quarters

The win secured his spot in the quarterfinals for the 27th consecutive major, equaling Jimmy Connors at No. 2 in that streak and trailing only Roger Federer’s record of 36.

“Playing against a player like Gilles you can expect a lot of rallies, he’s always making you play an extra shot”, the Serb said. “Nevertheless, he was fighting. I think it’s just absurd”.

Gilles Simon’s suggestion that he had the support of the locker room versus Novak Djokovic was of no concern to the world number one.

“I definitely think I played better today”. It’s different conditions [here], but I hope I can make some changes and try to play better.

The 28th seed for the Australian Open has then gone on to defeat Teimuraz Gabashvili in the first round after a four-set match, before he demolished Mirza Basic, only dropping seven games across a straight sets thrashing.

Federer will now play sixth-seed Tomas Berdych in the quarter-finals and he thought the Czech would like the court.

To her elation, it was a Broncos win.

He lost in the third round in his first two trips to Melbourne Park in 2000 and ’01 and again last year – in between he won the title four times and lost one final during a run of reaching the semifinals or better in 11 consecutive years.

“I’m just really excited and I just want to hug the whole stadium”, said the Moscow-born 21-year-old, who got her Australian passport last month. I backed up half a step back. “I can not say I expected it … not at all … but it obviously gives me a lot of confidence for anything that is coming in the future”.

“You got to be patient”.

Peyton Manning’s Broncos will face Cam Newton’s Carolina Panthers in the 50th Super Bowl.

It was the 600th victory of her career.

“I’m just glad that I still didn’t get any this press conference because I have nothing more to say there”.

The 14th-seeded Azarenka will take on No. 7 Angelique Kerber in the quarterfinals.

The match was interrupted for 20 minutes during the second set due to a medical issue in the stands that required medics to enter the arena.

Djokovic has dominated at the Australian Open recently, winning four of the last five titles, but almost suffered his second loss in six years on Sunday. He need to win more than 32 percent of his first serve points, win more than 70 percent of points on first serve and win more than 40 percent of the medium rallies.

The reigning five-time Australian Open champion seemed to gran a stranglehold on this match early. 2008 champion Sharapova sealed her place with a 7-5, 7-5 win over Belinda Bencic. First up was a convincing wins against Hyeon Chung, followed by Quentin Halys, although Halys did manage to take him all the way to a tie-breaker in the third set.

Djokovic only lost one match in a Grand Slam previous year – the French Open final – and for the sixth straight major hadn’t dropped a set in reaching the fourth round. Despite all that, he was ready to take tips from the public after his error-strewn performance.

The crowd laughed but Djokovic asked them for quiet, because he hadn’t specifically heard the directive. “You know, until somebody comes out with the real proof and evidence, it’s only a speculation for me”, he added.