Top-contender Dominic Thiem crumbles in fourth round of Australian Open

2021-02-14 15:05:16 GMT2021-02-14 23:05:16(Beijing Time) Xinhua English

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MELBOURNE, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- One of the Australian Open's top contenders, Dominic Thiem, exited in the fourth round of the tournament on Sunday, going down in straight sets to Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov 6-4, 6-4, 6-0.

Thiem, who lost last year's AO final to Novak Djokovic, attributed the loss to a combination of "little physical issues" and bad luck, as well as a dominant performance by his opponent.

"The thing also is that I'm also not a machine. I mean, sometimes I would like to be, but there are really, really bad days," Thiem said in a post-match press conference.

"As soon as you're not a hundred percent there on the court on this level, then results like this come up, and that's exactly what happened today."

Meanwhile, proving that they too have their ups and downs, top-ten seeds Serena Williams, Naomi Osaka and Simona Halep all avoided defeat after bouncing back in separate three-set battles.

Osaka progressed after beating Spain's Garbine Muguruza 4-6, 6-4, 7-5, but was forced to fight back from 3-5 down in the deciding third set, winning four straight games and saving two match points to claim the victory.

Following Osaka's remarkable comeback, veteran-player Williams battled through a three-set thriller of her own against Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka 6-4, 2-6, 6-4.

"I'm happy to get through that one," Williams said in a post-match interview. "It wasn't easy and I knew it wasn't going to be easy. She was teeing off on every shot."

Sabalenka struck early in the second set. Backed up by a powerful and accurate serve, which topped out at 194km/h, the Belarusian broke twice in a row to gain a 3-0 lead, exposing the possibility of beating the 23-time Grand Slam winner.

Despite leveling the score at 4-4 in the deciding set, Sabalenka fell victim to Williams's match-winning serve that she was unable to return, before also conceding her own along with the match.

Later in the evening, world No. 2 Halep came back from one set down to beat Iga Swiatek from Poland, finding her form to claim the next two sets for a final score of 3-6, 6-1, 6-4.

Halep and Williams will meet on Tuesday in the quarterfinals, with the Romanian world. No 2 heaping praise on her lower-seeded opponent.

"She is the best. I have experience, have so many matches against her. After tomorrow, I will just try to enjoy myself on court and try my best," Halep said.

"You only can beat Serena if you play your best."

Capping off the day, Djokovic moved through to the quarterfinals with remarkable ease after sustaining an abdominal injury in his previous match.

"If it's any other tournament than a Grand Slam I would retire that's for sure. But because it's a Grand Slam, I want to give my best," Djokovic said in a post-match interview.

The Serbian credited his team of physiotherapists for helping him reach a well enough condition to dispatch Canadian Milos Raonic in four sets, 7-6 (4), 4-6, 6-1, 6-4.

Djokovic will face Alexander Zverev in the quarterfinals after the German won his match against Dusan Lajovic, 6-4, 7-6 (5), 6-3. Enditem

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