Tennis: ‘Horrible’ 4th round Australian Open obliteration, World No. 1 knocked out

Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan smashes his racket as he plays against Karen Khachanov of Russia. Photo / AP

We’re finally getting to the pointy end of the tournament and there were some epic round four clashes in the men’s side of the draw.

Third seed Stefanos Tsitsipas needed five sets to beat 15th seed Jannik Sinner, 29th seed Sebastian Korda went the distance to beat 10th seed Hubert Hurkacz in a fifth set tie-break, while the unseeded Jiri Ledhecka completed the “Netflix curse” by knocking out 6th seed Felix Auger-Aliassime in four sets.

But the most striking match came in 18th seed Karen Khachanov’s straight sets win over 31 seed Yoshihito Nishioka.

Khachanov incredibly won the first 14 games before surging into his maiden Australian Open quarter-final.

Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan smashes his racket as he plays against Karen Khachanov of Russia. Photo / AP

The Russian pulled off a 6-0 6-0 7-6 on John Cain Arena, with Nishioka winning just 13 points in the first two sets.

In set two, he managed only two points across six games in an embarrassing annihilation.

It’s called a “bronze set” and the tennis world was floored.

A bronze set! Exceedingly rare, especially in the second week of a Slam.#AusOpen https://t.co/g32i6AjllI

— Ben Rothenberg (@BenRothenberg) January 22, 2023

A horrible fourth-round match ends for 31st-seeded Nishioka as he goes down 0-6, 0-6, 6-7 (4) to Khachanov.#AustralianOpen

— Nihit (@nihitsachdeva28) January 22, 2023

He faces American Sebastian Korda in the quarterfinals.

“First two sets, I didn’t know what was going on,” he said. “You’re going with the score, let’s say, too easy. Then Yoshi turned it around, pumped the crowd and I tried to stay focused from beginning to end.

“It’s not easy to win with this score, three sets, but I’m playing well and really happy to go through.”

However, on the women’s side of the draw, until the final match of the day between Victoria Azarenka and Zhu Lin, it was straight sets victories.

However, it was World No. 1 Iga Swiatek who was knocked out by 22nd seed and Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina, 7th seed Coco Gauff saying goodbye at the hands of 17th seed Jelena Ostapenka and 20th seed Barbora Krejcikova out to 3rd seed Jessica Pegula.

Two-time Australian Open winner Azarenka was also shocked in the first set by World No. 87 Zhu, before recovering in the second set and finishing off the two hour and 40 minute epic 4-6 6-1 6-4.