Nadal, Barty into Australian Open quarter-finals
Melbourne: Rafael Nadal has advanced to the Australian Open quarterfinals for the 13th time.
The No. 2-ranked Nadal closed his 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 win over 16th-seeded Fabio Fognini with an ace.
He was wary of Fognini and lifted his game in the second and third sets to avoid any repeat of the 2015 U.S. Open. That's when Fognini became one of only two players who've rallied from two sets down to beat Nadal in five.
There was no chance this time. Nadal responded to dropping a service game in the second set by breaking straight back.
He will now play either fifth-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas or ninth-seeded Matteo Berrettini in the last eight. It will be Nadal's 43rd Grand Slam quarterfinal. He shares the record for most men's major titles with Roger Federer. They each have 20.
Nadal's preparation for the year's first major was hampered by back stiffness.
After the win over Fognini he : I'm happy the back is holding better."
Top-ranked Ash Barty moved into the Australian Open quarterfinals for the third straight year by beating Shelby Rogers 6-3, 6-4.
Barty lost in the semifinals last year to eventual champion Sofia Kenin and didn't play another major tournament in 2020 after deciding to stay in Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic.
She had two match points in the eighth game of the second set but made four consecutive errors. Rogers capitalized to break and then hold and force Barty to again serve for the match. Barty made no mistakes the second time when she held at love to close it out. Barty is aiming to be the first Australian woman since 1978 to win the Australian title. She will next play No. 25 Karolina Muchova.
Muchova rallied from 5-2 down in the first set to upset 18th-seeded Elise Mertens 7-6 (5), 7-5.
Mertens won the Gippsland Trophy tuneup tournament at Melbourne Park before the Australian Open started and won the first four games against Muchova but then started to tighten up as the Czech player found her range with her big ground strokes.
Muchova is into the quarterfinals at a major for the second time.
On the other hand, after Jessica Pegula earned her first trip to a Grand Slam quarterfinal, the daughter of the owners of Buffalo's NFL and NHL franchises scribbled on the screen of an Australian Open courtside TV camera: "hi mom, hi dad, see you next rd Jen B."
In addition to a shoutout to her parents, that was a message for Jennifer Brady, a good pal of Pegula's whose fourth-round match was up next in Rod Laver Arena on Monday (Sunday night EST).
The 61st-ranked Pegula beat No. 5 seed Elina Svitolina of Ukraine 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, before the 22nd-seeded Brady, a Pennsylvanian who played college tennis at UCLA, had a 6-1, 7-5 victory over No. 28 Donna Vekic of Croatia.
Brady was one of the 72 players who had to go through a hard lockdown two weeks stuck in a hotel room, not allowed to leave for any reason after flying to Australia in January because someone on their flight tested positive for COVID-19 upon arrival. Brady and Pegula gave the U.S. at least three women's quarterfinalists at Melbourne Park, joining 23-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams, who advanced a day
earlier.
