Azareka moves into last eight of Australia Open

He would go on to serve out the set and match to book his spot in the Australian Open final eight for a second consecutive year. “All of those kind of things coming together, it’s just sort of cementing where I am with my game, which way I want to keep taking it”. “I played smart, aggressively, took my opportunities and I really kept my composure”. The Swiss took the fourth set and now seemed determined to take the match away from the hands of the Canadian.

Two-time grand slam champion Stan Wawrinka admitted he struggled to recover from illness after failing to make the Australian Open quarter-finals on Monday. Murray put the medical emergency behind him but it was a scrappy match, as he broke Tomic’s serve six times and dropped his own serve four times. He won 37 of the 57 serve-and-volley points he played.

Raonic is off to a great start this year – he has won all of his eight matches, including the final in Brisbane against Roger Federer – but hasn’t had almost the success Curry has enjoyed in the past year.

Prior to his fourth round match against David Ferrer, John Isner hadn’t been broken at all in the tournament.

Johanna Konta’s strong run at the Australian Open continued with a 4-6, 6-4, 8-6 win over Ekaterina Makarova, advancing her to the quarterfinals. He beat Tomic yesterday 6-4, 6-4, 7-6. Earlier, Bopanna, partnering Chinese Taipei’s Yung-Jan Chan, beat Andrea Hlavackova and Lukasz Kubot 4-6, 6-3, 10-6.

The world No. 14 deserved the victory.

AZARENKA VS. KERBER. This is a rematch of the Brisbane International final on January 9 which Azarenka won in straight sets.

Raonic, intent on going to the net as frequently as possible, dominated in the first two sets, but then Wawrinka went on a roll and it appeared he was ready to come back from two-sets down to win for a seventh time at a major.

Raonic next faces Gael Monfils, the Frenchman who beat Russian Andrey Kuznetsov 7-5, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4).

Andy Murray was made to work in his fourth round match by Bernard Tomic, but in the end he managed to pull through safely to the quarters without dropping a set. Azarenka improved her career record against her Czech opponent to 5-0, including a third-round win here previous year and a second-round victory in 2014, both in straight sets.

Azarenka also hit the dab again after her win, as did Carolina Panthers’ Cam Newton during his team’s win over the Arizona Cardinals.

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

Raonic, the No. 13 seed, remains unbeaten in 2016 after accounting for the No. 23 seed 6-3 3-6 6-3 6-4 on Rod Laver Arena in two hours and 17 minutes.

The No. 7-seeded Kerber saved a match point in her first-round win over Japan’s Misaki Doi, and she thought that was a good omen.

Play is under way in bright sunshine on the eighth day at Melbourne Park which features the final group of fourth-round matches that will determine singles quarterfinalists.