When it comes to the ATP Tour and Grand Slam events, you will rarely if ever see any of the top seeded players upset and it almost never occurs during the opening week of play. That has not been the case at this year’s Australian Open, as the entire tournament was thrown for a loop following Andreas Seppi’s stunning four set victory over No. 2 seed Roger Federer.

 While it was certainly special to watch unfold, it by no means triggered a run of surprising results...which is something that has almost become expected over on WTA Tour.  In fact, outside of Grigor Dimitrov being pushed to a fifth set by Marcos Baghdatis, the rest of the field had next to no trouble in advancing to the fourth round on the very same day Federer failed to accomplish the feat for the first time since 2001.

With Kevin Anderson, Tomas Berdych, Dimitrov, Nick Kyrgios, Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray, Seppi and Bernard Tomic having already booked their tickets to the Round of Sixteen, it was up to the quintet of Novak Djokovic, Stan Wawrinka, Kei Nishikori, Milos Raonic and David Ferrer to hold up their end of the bargain during Day Six of competition and not surprisingly…it played out in the exact fashion one might have expected.

It was business as usual for the four-time Aussie Open winner, who needed just over two hours and twenty minutes to dispose of Fernando Verdasco in straight sets 7-6(8), 6-3, 6-4. While the thirty-one old had enjoyed some previous success against the World No. 1, the two had played all of one match over the previous four plus years with Djokovic coming out on top in Beijing back in 2013.

Despite having to battle what was a rather lengthy bout of the flu prior to arriving in Australia, the seven-time Major winner has been getting better with each and every match and seems poised to a take another run at winning this event for what would be a record-setting fifth time.

While the talented Serbian may have his sights set on adding yet another jewel to his ever growing collection, he may have his hands full when it comes to the quarterfinals and potential battle with Raonic.

The hard-serving Canadian had looked awfully impressive heading into his third round match with Benjamin Becker and the thirty-three year old German proved to be nothing more than a speed bump for the No. 8 seed. As per usual, it was his devastating serve and overpowering forehand that allowed Raonic to cruise to rather comfortable 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 win.

Before tennis fans are treated to what could potentially be one heck of a quarterfinal matchup, both men will need to take one more step in the fourth round but neither one should have much trouble in advancing to final eight. While Djokovic will need to get past Gilles Muller, who surprised American John Isner 7-6(4), 7-6(6),6-4 to advance, Raonic should have a far tougher go of things as he takes on No. 12 seed Feliciano Lopez. 

The talented Spaniard looked extremely solid in beating Poland’s Jerzy Janowicz 7-6(6), 6-4, 7-6(3) and could prove to be somewhat of a problematic opponent for the Canadian No. 1.

No. 4 seed Stan Wawrinka had no trouble whatsoever in defeating Finland’s Jarkko Nieminen 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 and the defending champ will now face Spain’s Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in the Round of Sixteen, as the thirty-one year old easily did away with Canada’s Vasek Pospisil in straight sets, 6-2, 6-4, 6-4.

The same holds true for Nishikori, who had a minor hiccup in dropping the first set of his third round match with American Steve Johnson but the US Open finalist wasted little in bouncing back and breezing to an easy 6-7(7), 6-1, 6-2, 6-3 victory. The No. 5 seed will need to be far better his next time out, as he takes on Fererer in what could be one of the better matches we see in the Round of Sixteen.

The No. 9 seed was in good form in getting past Frenchman Gilles Simon 6-2, 7-5, 5-7, 7-6*4)  in what was a fairly even match. While both men came in playing some quality tennis, it was the diminutive Spaniard who took his game to another level when it mattered most.

Day Seven of competition will see the start of the fourth round and with it could quite possibly come the best match of the opening week of play. While the Nadal - Anderson, Berdych - Tomic and Kyrgios - Seppi contests could all end up being very nice matches, the chances of any of them being better than what we should get from a Dimitrov - Murray showdown would seem highly unlikely.

With the two-time major winner playing the best tennis we have seen from him in some time, the twenty-three year old Bulgarian may need to be at his very best if he hopes to match his quarterfinal appearance from a year ago. While Murray did win their last head-to-head meeting at the BNP Paribas Masters in Paris back in late October, it was Dimitrov who won their only Grand Slam tie during the quarterfinals at Wimbledon in 2014.