Aussie Open quarter-final musings

Fanatic Omes:

Lopsided quarters

With important seeds being booted out in Petra, Masha and Andy's draws, there were three cases of heavyweight/lightweight match-ups.The great thing about this? It allowed for some much coveted sleep time. Sleep is for the me.

How Rafa got his groove back

It took Tomas Berdych, a bad call from Carlos Bernardes and a lucky break in the second set to ignite el pasion in Rafa. He acknowledged he started nervous and that at times he stood "20m behind the baseline" and for a while it looked as though Tomas was going to pull off the upset. Tomas played excellently, he was so solid, error free and tactically sound for most of the match, I wanted to punch him in the face. But when Rafa's gets as animated as he did, it's tough to get past him.

Having been robbed of the 1st set (shhh, I'm a fan) but catching a break in the 2nd - it was like he was battling his 2011 demons in that moment and managed to break free of the mental prison that Novak threw him in last year. He then when on to play how he should for the next two sets- stepping up on the baseline; hitting flatter and harder. Credit to Tomas who by no means disappeared for the rest of the match, but listen to what Rafa said:

"The most important thing I had the calm".

You guys.

No. 1 no more

Kim (who's ankle thankfully held up enough) showed Caro how it's done. The defending champ just had too much game for Caro, who even Hingis, urged to "step forward". Caro remained optimistic afterwards though, remarking that time was on her side. Whether that was a dig at Kimmie or not, we'll never know. Caro's now Slamless and no. 1-less. Who knows, maybe the loss of her beloved no.1 will spark the necessary change in her game.

Ferrer's disbelief

Daveeed had us going there for a minute. With his unrelenting brand of tennis he was able to make Nole look human for the first 2 sets. He could and should have made Djokovic play at least 4 sets, but when it came to the crunch - i.e. 4-2 up in the second set tiebreak, he just didn't believe in himself nearly enough. Ferrer, please don't believe those who underestimate you.

Nole should take solace in how he played in the 3rd set - he can't afford to go for anything less when he plays Andy. (I should probably win an Obvious award for that statement).

(Pic: Getty)