Sixth seed Karolina Pliskova reached her second Australian Open quarterfinal by outlasting Barbora Strycova 6-7(5) 6-3 6-2 in an all-Czech battle that stretched into the early hours of Tuesday.
Taking to the court just before 11pm local time, the pair slugged it out for two hours and 41 minutes in the late match at Rod Laver Arena before former US Open finalist Pliskova finally put down her compatriot. Strycova saved one match point with an audacious serve-volley and a second with an overhead smash before the 20th seed surrendered by clubbing a backhand over the baseline.
Pliskova will meet top seed Simona Halep for a place in the semifinals.
In men's singles, American sensation Tennys Sandgren's dream debut at the Australian Open continued as the rank outsider upset fifth seed Dominic Thiem in a five-set thriller to reach an improbable quarterfinal. The world number 97 had failed to win a match in his two previous main draw appearances at Grand Slams or even string together more than two wins at Tour-level before arriving at Melbourne Park.
But Sandgren's 6-2 4-6 7-6(4) 6-7(7) 6-3 triumph at a heaving Hisense Arena made the Tennessee native only the second debutant to reach the Australian Open quarterfinals in 20 years.
"At the end of the match doing the post match interview (I was) thinking this would be one of those moments where you wake up," the beaming 26-year-old told reporters. "I definitely had a real pinch-me moment. Wow, this is hopefully real. If I wake up now, I'm going to be real upset."
In a riveting contest played out in an atmosphere of a football match, Sandgren played like a man possessed, and came within an inch of victory during the frenetic fourth-set tiebreak. Thiem saved a match point with a blistering backhand down the line and held on to force a deciding fifth set.
As crushing a let-down as it was, Sandgren shrugged off the setback and maintained the fearless tennis that had pushed Thiem to the wall. When the Austrian missed a string of first serves, he pounced in the sixth game to create a break point and grimly held firm until Thiem fell on his sword with a forehand into the net.
—Reuters
