The final four second round matches were contested on Thursday at the Brisbane International, with the defending champion kicking off his campaign, as well as a few favourites booking their places in the last eight. The quarterfinal field is now set, so here’s what happened on day five in Brisbane.
Results
All eyes were on Milos Raonic, the top seed and defending champion, on Thursday as he took to the court to kick off both his title defense and 2017 campaign. While he had some shaky moments early in each set, the Canadian was still relatively untroubled in his first match of the season, crushing Diego Schwartzman 6-3, 6-2. The Canadian’s net assault left a fair amount to be desired, but he was solid on serve, pounding a dozen aces to start off his season with a bang. Check out the full recap here.
Raonic will have his hands full in the quarterfinals as he will take on fifth seed Rafael Nadal, who was nothing short of dominant in his blowout second round win over Mischa Zverev. The Spaniard showed no signs of the left wrist injury that ruined his 2016 season as he crushed shot after shot from the baseline, blowing his German opponent off the court. Zverev had no answers for the Spaniard’s raw power and was sent packing 6-1, 6-1. Check out the full recap here.
Grigor Dimitrov has often done well in Brisbane and that continued on Thursday as the seventh seed booked his spot in the quarterfinals with a straight sets win over doubles world number one Nicolas Mahut. The Bulgarian set the tone with an early break and never looked back, out-serving the doubles superstar and never facing a break point in the entire match. Check out the full recap here.
In the quarterfinals, Dimitrov will take on fourth seed Dominic Thiem, who contested his first match of 2017 on Thursday. The Austrian, who is the youngest player in the top ten to start 2017, scored his first win of the year much to the disappointment of the Brisbane fans as he took out Aussie Sam Groth in straight sets. Thiem had to weather the storm from the monster-serving Aussie, who held four break points in the opener before Thiem scored a late minibreak to steal the set in a tiebreak. The Austrian finally broke through, converting his fourth break point of the second set for a 5-3 lead, after which he held to wrap up the 7-6(5), 6-3 victory.
The quarterfinals will take place tomorrow with Raonic dueling Nadal, Dimitrov taking on Thiem, Stan Wawrinka facing off with Kyle Edmund, and Jordan Thompson looking to keep home hopes alive against Kei Nishikori.