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Despairing fourth seed Alexander Zverev destroyed his racket as he bowed out to Milos Raonic in straight sets at the Australian Open, with the Canadian 16th seed progressing to the quarter-finals.
Zverev put in an uncharacteristically mistake-riddled performance in the 6-1, 6-1, 7-6 (7/5) loss, serving up 10 double faults to give Raonic a huge leg-up.
After falling behind 4-1 in the second, Zverev had just about enough.
The 21-year-old German sat down in his courtside chair and thumped his racket against the ground eight times before tossing it aside.
He was warned for racket abuse after the display and, after dropping the set two games later, he left the court and went to the locker room.
When he returned, he only dropped one point on his serve until the eighth game, but suddenly things went haywire again when he faced two match points.
Zverev composed himself to save those two points and led in the tiebreaker until Raonic went on a roll.
From 3-1 down, Raonic rallied to get to 6-4 and missed one more match point before finally converting.
Osaka into second major quarter-final
US Open champion Naomi Osaka is into her second grand slam quarter-final after another comeback win in Melbourne, this time over Anastasija Sevastova.
Osaka had to work for nearly two hours on Rod Laver Arena to subdue the gritty Sevastova 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in a fourth-round match studded by service breaks.
Photo:
Naomi Osaka is a major winner but this is only her second grand slam quarter-final. (AAP: Lukas Coch)
She will next play sixth-seeded Elina Svitolina, who had a 6-2, 1-6, 6-1 win over 2017 US Open finalist Madison Keys.
Osaka won a tight three-setter when she met Sevastova at the Brisbane International in the first week of the season.
Sevastova grabbed the lead in the opening set on Monday, and clinched it with a deft drop shot that forced Osaka to fly a forehand over the baseline.
Osaka had to stave off two break points in the third game of the second to edge ahead.
The fourth-seeded Osaka grew in confidence from the narrow escape and lifted her tempo and shot-making consistency, grabbing the crucial service break in the sixth game.
Serving to level the match, Osaka fended off a break-back point with a brilliant forehand volley after a long, tense baseline rally.
Two points later, the match was heading into the deciding set.
Osaka broke serve to open third set to maintain the momentum.
ABC/AP
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