This Sunday (22), Iga Swiatekworld No. 1, bid farewell to Australian Open 2023. With the elimination of Swiatek, the Australian Open became the first Grand Slam in the open era without the presence of key heads 1 and 2 in the quarter-finals of the men’s and women’s singles tournaments. The top seeds of the competition were Iga Swiatek and Ons Jabeusfeminine and RAfael Nadal and Casper Ruudin the male.

The surprise for the women’s singles group on Sunday was the victory of Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan over Iga Swiatek. Rybakina was firm and consistent in the decisive points and with a double 6/4 secured the place for the quarter-finals. Her next rival will be Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, who defeated seventh seed Coco Gauff of the United States in straight sets, 7/5 and 6/3 apart.

The American Jessica Pegula, current world number 3, maintained the good phase and qualified for the quarter-finals of the Australian Open. She overcame a balanced first set with the Czech Barbora Krejcikova to close the match at 2-0, partials of 7/5 and 6/2. The opponent in the next phase will be two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, who needed three sets to beat China’s Lin Zhu, partials of 3/6, 6/4 and 6 /3.

In men’s singles, the first quadruple finalist this year is the Russian Karen Khachanov, who ignored his opponent, the Japanese Yoshihito Nishioka. Khachanov won 14 matches in a row and closed the first two sets with an incredible 6/0, in the third set Nishioka managed to even the game but was beaten in the tie-break, partial of 7/6 (7-4 ). The place for the semi-final will be against the North American Sebastian Korda, who beat the Pole Hubert Hurkacz in a stunning tie-break in the fifth set, closing the match with partials of 3/6, 6/3, 6/ 2, 1/6 and 7/6 (10-7).

In another five-set match, it was Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas’ turn to secure his place in the Australian Open quarter-finals. He beat Jannik Sinner of Italy in a 4-hour match, but secured the Greek spot with splits of 6/4, 6/4, 3/6, 4/6 and 6/3. Tsitsipas will face Czech Jiri Lehecka in the next round, who at 21 had not won a Grand Slam until arriving in Melbourne. Lehecka defeated the Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime in 3 sets to 1, partials of 4/6, 6/3, 7/6 (7-2) and 7/6 (7-3).

What is curious is that the elimination of Aliassime puts an end to the campaign of tennis players who were the main characters of the Netflix series Break Point. The Canadian has joined the list which also includes Nick Kyrgios, Thanasi Kokkinakis, Matteo Berrettini, Taylor Fritz, Casper Ruud, Ajla Tomljanovic, Maria Sakkari, Paula Badosa and Ons Jabeur.

Among the Brazilians, the highlight is the campaign of the mixed duo formed by Luisa Stefani and Rafael Matos, who beat the duo formed by Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the United States and Mate Pavic of Croatia 2-0, partial of 6/4 and 6/4, and will play the quarter-finals against the local duo Lizette Cabrera and John-Patrick Smith. (look here)

In women’s doubles, Beatriz Haddad Maia and her partner Shuai Zhang were eliminated after missing 9 chances to end the match, they suffered the return of the Czechs Miriam Kolodziejova and Marketa Vondrousova, who closed the match 3/6, 7/6 (11-9) and 7/6 (14-12). Among young people, João Fonseca will be the only Brazilian representative in the competition.