Australian Open gallery, Day 7

 

Originally published on: 26/02/10 15:16

Come tomorrow, the business end of the tournament begins. That’s most people’s opinion of the second week of the Slams, but they’ll be a few chief execs short of a board meeting in the women’s draw, as world No.1 and top seed Jelena Jankovic crashed out/crumbled/tanked (choose your favourite) in very straight sets against the enigma wrapped in a double-fisted forehand that is Marion Bartoli.

WTA rankings here.

J.J. joins compatriot Ana Ivanovic and Venus Williams as spectators for the remainder of the singles event at least – Venus and Serena march on the doubles – as the headline casualties of the first week. No such drama in the men’s draw, as Roger Federer joins Rafa and Andy in the quarters, although not before clawing his way back from a two-set deficit against trigger-happy Tomas Berdych.

Alize Cornet reached the verge of a huge upset when she reached match point against Dinara Safina. But as we all know after last year’s French Open, Dinara doesn’t know when she’s beaten, and came from 5-2 down in the third to win it 7-5.

The Russian is now in good shape to take that No.1 spot from Jankovic, but not without getting through a quarterfinal match-up against Jelena Dokic, whose fairytale – albeit a rather dark fairytale – run in Melbourne continued today with a gutsy victory over Alisa Kleybanova.

Elsewhere, Andy Roddick racked up a perfect ten on his head-to-head record against Tommy Robredo and may even get a show court for the first time in the quarters, Juan Martin del Potro won his first ever encounter with his Croatian clone Marin Cilic, and Vera Zvonareva won the latest all-Russian affair against Nadia Petrova.

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