Australian Open 2022, day eight: De Minaur and Medvedev in last 16 action – live!

5.13am GMT05:13

Certainly looks that way from the comfort of home. Cornet manages to hold serve after a battle, but she has started missing shots in strange ways, she’s muttering to herself in distress between points, she serves a double-fault to waste a game point, and has to really fight to get it back. The heat must be really taxing.

5.09am GMT05:09

Emma Kemp

It’s searing hot at Rod Laver Arena and Cornet is melting with it. The Frenchwoman’s aggression helped her take the first set but her form has since fallen off a cliff, and the second set with it. Long rallies in the heat can’t be helping either player. Cornet has been plonking an ice pack on her head during changes of ends and Halep is repeatedly leaning on her racket for support. The Romanian leads 1-0 in the decider.

5.02am GMT05:02

From an Australian perspective, everyone is waiting for Alex de Minaur’s match against the Italian Jannik Sinner. They’re due on Rod Laver Arena after Halep and Cornet, so it’ll be another set of waiting for the local lad.

4.56am GMT04:56

Halep comes back to win the second set 6-3. So she and Cornet will go into a decider.

4.55am GMT04:55

And the Croatian Marin Cilic won his first set by the same margin over Felix Auger-Aliassime, with the Canadian taking it to 4-4 in the second set so far. All of the active matches are fourth-rounders.

4.53am GMT04:53

Meanwhile, the men’s two-seed Daniil Medvedev is beating up Maxime Cressy in their fourth-rounder, games on serve in the second set after a walloping 6-2 in the first.

4.49am GMT04:49

What’s happening live? Well, there’s a ding-dong second set underway between Romanian former numero uno Simona Halep and French ice-cream maker Alize Cornet. The unseeded Cornet has broken and led Halep at various times in the set but has finally been pushed out of her comfort zone, going a break down at 4-3.

Updated
at 4.55am GMT

4.47am GMT04:47

Preamble

Geoff Lemon

G’day, racket freaks. It’s time for another day of highly strung action at Melbourne Park, as the tournament gets serious. The day is hot and sweaty, as are the players. Mid-30s on the temperature gauge and plenty of humidity with the sunshine. Electrolytes in the daytime, electric lights in the evening.

Only one result so far today, which is that American Danielle Collins (seeded 27th) has knocked out the wily Belgian Elise Mertens (seeded 19th) for a place in the women’s singles quarters.

source: theguardian.com