Australian Open: Novak Djokovic beats Gilles Simon

Williams, who advanced in 55 minutes, said she did not know she was facing Sharapova, who has not defeated her in more than a decade.

“This must be the first match I won on a challenge but it felt like a clean ball – I felt like it was on the line, I was really positive about it but I thought worst-case scenario we’re back to deuce”. She makes you work. “I never play thinking that I want to be with the great Margaret Court”.

Though he reached the semis a year ago, Berdych has flown under the radar mostly so far with the focus being on Djokovic, Federer and Murray. “It’s like hitting the reset button…”

It was the first match Djokovic has dropped a set since a semifinal win over Stan Wawrinka at the Paris Masters in November and the first match in Melbourne he was pressured into playing five sets.

“I was surprised it went as fast as it did”, Federer added. “I was able to do that”.

Roger Fedrerer sent out a message he is ready to win an 18th grand slam title as the Swiss master breezed past Tomas Berdych in the Australian Open quarter-finals. I’m playing just playing for me.

“We played in London and he kind of destroyed me”, he said.

“He (Djokovic) has been playing a lot of good tennis again this year”. He drew a lot of people to watch tennis, bringing a lot of energy on the court, a lot of charisma, just a lot of quality overall.

Top-ranked Novak Djokovic prevailed over Gilles Simon 6-3, 6-7 (1-7), 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 at the Australian Open to reach his 27th consecutive Grand Slam tournament quarterfinal.

Simon is 1-10 against Djokovic.

“That will be a good match, I have nothing to lose”. The last point counts. “At 4-4, 30/0, I just wasted that game with some unforced errors [and] handed him the set”.

“It wasn’t an easy match for me”.

“He’s a counter-puncher, one of the best on tour if not the best”, Djokovic said courtside.

“I think today was more (about) my game”.

“It gives me great joy to know that I can’t get worse than that, than what I played today”, Djokovic said. “I have to be the one to dictate”.

Nishikori will offer a similar test of consistency given the seventh seed’s strengths lie in his willingness to rally from the baseline. Disrupted Djokovic managed to win only one point in the tie break, something that is so rare to see from him, and after more than 2 hours result was tied at one set each, with much drama to follow.

You would expect at this point for Djokovic to either ignore his critic or come back with some sort of diss of his own.

“Then you’re trying to cut down on the length of the rallies, go for a victor or go for a drop-shot. Sometimes you have a brain freeze, if I can call it that”.

The match was not of a high standard with both players guilty of volleying errors, but Nishikori’s early service break proved decisive as Djokovic took a two sets lead with a strong first serve. “So I’m sure I’ll be fine”. “I think the biggest thing is he doesn’t miss”, Nishikori said on Djokovic.

David Goffin could still not cope with 17-time grand slam champion Roger Federer, falling in straight sets.

The five-time victor has been the dominant force in the men’s game in recent years but looked uncharacteristically vulnerable during a five-set match against the 14th seeded player.

Paes and Martina Hingis of Switzerland posted a 6-3, 7-5 win over Anastasia Pavlyu-chenkova and Dominic Inglot while third seeded Bopanna and Yung-Jan Chan of Chinese Taipei hardly broke a sweat before prevailing over the Australian pair of John Millman and Kimberly Birrell, 7-5, 6-1 in 48 minutes.