German tennis player Angelique Kerber beats Taiwanese ace player Hsieh Su-wei

Following a superb 2016 campaign in which she won the Australian and US Opens, was runner-up at Wimbledon and became world No 1, Kerber ended 2017 at No 22 in the world rankings after failing to win another title.

“I think she’s always tough to play”, said Keys about her matchup with Kerber.

Last Saturday, Hsieh rolled past Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland at the Australian Open to reach the round of 16 in a Grand Slam for the second time.

The experienced Hsieh took advantage by mixing up her baseline game with a dizzying repertoire of drop shots and lobs which made for a wonderfully entertaining match.

While Osaka was celebrating, 2016 Open champion Angelique Kerber made just seven unforced errors against Sharapova, holding serve in all but one game while cruising to a 6-1 6-3 victory in an hour and four minutes on Rod Laver Arena.

Ten years after a stunning run to the fourth round of the Australian Open on her main draw debut, Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei has enjoyed double good fortune at Melbourne Park this week.

Doubles specialist Hsieh plays double-handed on both sides and confounded Kerber with some dinky drop shots amongst her repertoire. Kerber figured out the puzzle late in the second set and figured out to break serve to stay in the match.

Fifth seed Austrian Dominic Thiem recorded 42 winners in a sublime attacking display against France’s Adrian Mannarino with a 6-4 6-2 7-5 victory.

She carried the momentum into the second set, breaking Garcia twice more as she raced into a 4-0 lead, before Garcia managed to stop the rot and win a couple of games.

Though she’s had modest success in singles, the 32-year-old honed her unusual playing style and enjoyed her best results in doubles.

She has won two Grand Slam doubles titles and was ranked No. 1 in doubles in 2014.

There were 11 service breaks and two medical timeouts – for Davis to get treatment on both feet – before Halep converted on her first match point.

“I try to just keep calm and see her as another opponent – I think that shows respect to the others”, Latisha Chan said after the match. “I obviously missed a lot of tennis last year and wasn’t playing well at the beginning of the year. I was thinking, ‘Why is he sending me to play the singles?” she said. I learned a lot in the past 24 months, especially since a year ago was so tough for me.

Hsieh plays a completely different game from most of her rivals, relying not on power but a mixture of spins and slices and ball placement that bamboozle opponents and frequently drive them to distraction.

After beating the No. 8-seeded Caroline Garcia 6-3, 6-2 in a brisk 68 minutes on Monday, Keys is also back into the quarterfinals of the Australian Open for the first time in three years.

Top-seeded Simona Halep, who had to rally from triple match point down to advance through the third round, beat Naomi Osaka 6-3, 6-2.