Australian Open Heads Into Finals Weekend

Well the Australian Open is somewhat heading into finals weekend: as there is one more semifinal match to still be played. Tonight, Novak Djokovic will have his rematch against Stan Wawrinka, the defending Australian Open champion that knocked him out of the quarterfinals in 2014. For those interested in watching it, it is on fairly late: tomorrow morning at 3:30 am EST to be exact.

At the same time, the other three matches are finished and the winners are exactly who you expect: today Andy Murray defeated Tom Berdych in four sets 6-7 (6-8), 6-0, 6-3, 7-5.  After a hardly contested first set, Murray settled down breaking Berdych 6 out of 10 times. He even registered 17 less unforced errors and won 75 percent of his first serve points. Yet the match is more famous for the viral vine of Murray and his fiancée swearing.

On the women’s side of the draw, Selena Williams also had a hard fought first set winning in a tiebreaker, but was able to hold off the 19-year-old Madison Keys by playing a great statistical match: only 16 unforced errors — 23 less than Keys — 62 percent of first serves in, 73 percent of her first service points won and only one double fault.

And she will face Maria Sharapova who easily handled the tenth seed Ekaterina Makarova: in just under 90 minutes, Sharapova dismantled her opponent 6-3, 6-2. And Sharapova did not even play her best match: only 55 percent of her first serves in — she did win on 81 percent of first serves — 50 percent of second serves won, seven double faults and 26 unforced errors. Simply, she needs to play better if she wants to beat Serena: an opponent she is 2-16 against — 1-2 in grand slam finals and 1-4 in all grand slam matches.

The Australian Open women’s final will be on Saturday morning 3:30 am EST with the men’s championship happening at the same time the following day.

Article by Anthony Falco