Nishikori into Melbourne quarter-finals with Tsonga win

Kei Nishikori dissected Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, 6-4, 6-2, 6-4, to reach the Australian Open quarterfinals for the third time in the last five years.

Despite guaranteeing herself a maiden final 32 result at the Australian Open, Bencic said there was room for improvement ahead of her match-up against Sharapova in two days’ time.

The Japanese player says he was prepared for a long game but happy to close it out in straight sets.

Sharapova won consecutive matches against Williams in 2004 at Wimbledon and the season-ending championships, but hasn’t won since. “He’s going to want to get on top of that baseline and move me around all day”.

A diligent, patient student of the game who didn’t join the pro tour until 2012, Johnson won more tour matches (36) last year than in his three previous years combined.

“I think I’m feeling in the best shape body-wise, spirit-wise, everything-wise”, Azarenka said after her second-round win.

“I lost the second set kind of easy so it was tough mentally …”

“Yeah, my last match in 2015, he beat me in Paris”, Isner said of Ferrer.

Tsonga started strongly, but once he lost his serve, Nishikori began to run away with the first set.

Now, for the first time in six years, Isner is into the fourth round at the Aussie Open.

Ivanovic appears to be in one of her lesser phases now, but the problem for Keys is you never know where and how Ivanovic might snap out of it. Serena Williams certainly found out when Ivanovic’s game suddenly caught fire at the start of 2014 when Ivanovic knocked Williams out of this tournament in the fourth round.

Goffin, ranked 15th at the Open, said playing a friend was always hard, as you had to prepare mentally as well as physically. Fittingly, he finished the match with a 128 miles per hour ace down the line, his 44th of the match, a tournament high and only seven shy of Joachim Johansson’s Australian Open record.

Nishikori claimed a service break to take a 4-2 lead in the third set and despite facing break points in each of his subsequent service games, he toughed it out to take the set.

The Japanese world no. 7 spent week one in Brisbane where he made a quarter-final exit at the hands of Bernard Tomic 3-6, 6-1, 3-6 after defeating Mikhail Kukushkin in the second round 6-3, 6-4 and receiving a bye in the first round.

After making way for Williams on the main court, he noted it was his first match on Melbourne Park’s No. 2 court since it was renovated to include a roof.

Roger Federer and Grigor Dimitrov experienced a rarity at Rod Laver Arena – a rain delay.

Belinda Bencic was the first player to reach the fourth round, winning the opening match on Rod Laver Arena 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 against Kateryna Bondarenko. The final set had the Frenchman determined to put up a fight and extend it out to five, but Nishikori remained calm and took care of Tsonga with some confident and strategic play.

Defending champions Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams were set to play night matches Friday.