Stamford Advocate

Alcaraz set to face Zverev

MELBOURNE, Australia — Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz will meet Olympic gold medalist Alexander Zverev in the Australian Open quarterfin­als and Daniil Medvedev is also back in a last eight that is stacked with the top six seeds.

While the men’s competitio­n is playing fairly true to the rankings, the women’s really is a tale of two halves.

No. 12-seeded Zheng Qinwen, a quarterfin­alist at last year’s U.S. Open, is the highest-ranked player left in the top half of the bracket, where all four women who won Monday reached the last eight at Melbourne Park for the first time.

“The people who arrive to quarterfin­als, for sure they’re all feeling really well in this tournament,” Zheng said after her 6-0, 6-3 win over No. 95 Oceane Dodin. “It’s one player against another player, and we will compete.”

She’ll next play No. 75-ranked Anna Kalinskaya. No. 50 Linda Noskova, who beat top-ranked Iga Swiatek in the third round, will meet No. 93 Dayana Yastremska.

There’s still three Grand Slam winners in the other half of the bracket. No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka, the defending champion, will take on 2021 French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova and U.S. Open winner Coco Gauff will play Marta Kostyuk in quarterfin­als on Tuesday.

The first of the men’s quarterfin­als — 10-time Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic vs. No. 12 Taylor Fritz and No. 4 Jannik Sinner vs. No. 5 Andrey Rublev — were set on Sunday, well before Alcaraz completed a Grand Slam set by reaching the last eight in Australia for the first time.

The 20-year-old Alcaraz missed the 2023 Australian Open because of injury, but is making up for lost time.

He beat Miomir Kecmanovic 6-4, 6-4, 6-0 in less than two hours to open Monday’s night session on Rod Laver Arena.

No. 3 Medvedev, a two-time Australian Open runner-up, beat No. 69-ranked Nuno Borges 6-3, 7-6 (4), 5-7, 6-1 and will next face No. 9 Hubert Hurkacz, who ended the run of French wild-card entry Arthur Cazaux 7-6 (6), 7-6 (3), 6-4.

Some unexpected charges continue in the women’s field, with opportunit­ies opening up for the likes of Noskova, Yastremska and Kalinskaya to advance to the quarterfin­als of a Grand Slam for the first time.

Kalinskaya beat No. 26 Jasmine Paolini 6-4, 6-2 to end a streak of 13 majors that didn’t go beyond the second round.

Yastremska beat the 18th-seeded Victoria Azarenka, a two-time Australian Open champion, 7-6 (6), 6-4, and No. 23-seeded Elina Svitolina had to retire after hurting her back when she was trailing Noskova 3-0.