Boasting arguably the most fluid shot-making in the modern game between them, Roger Federer and Grigor Dimitrov will trade blows tonight in only the fourth installment of their rivalry, their first since last year’s Brisbane International semifinals.
The Swiss top seed has never dropped a set to the Bulgarian 25-year-old and opened his 2016 title defence last night in routine fashion against German qualifier Tobias Kamke.
The 34-year-old’s Brisbane triumph last season was the first of six titles for the year. Dubai, Istanbul, Halle, Cincinnati and Basel followed as well as runner-up finishes at Wimbledon and the US Open, where both times world No.1 Novak Djokovic thwarted his bid for an 18th grand slam crown.
Former world No.8 Dimitrov, a semifinalist at Wimbledon 2014, reached the Brisbane and Istanbul semifinals as well as ATP Masters 1000 quarterfinals in Monte-Carlo and Madrid. He arrives having strung together impressive results over fifth seed Gilles Simon and Serb Viktor Troicki.
In another rematch from last year’s Brisbane International, Japanese world No.8 Kei Nishikori and 23-year-old Gold Coast product Bernard Tomic meet in the quarterfinals.
A year on, Tomic – at a career-high ranking of No.18 – is out to exact revenge after impressive wins over Nicolas Mahut and Radek Stepanek. He has not taken a set off Nishikori in two prior meetings.
Tomic won his third career title last season in Bogota, while Nishikori bagged titles in Memphis and Barcelona, reaching the quarterfinals or better in 10 of his first 11 tournaments.
In the first of our women’s singles semifinals for 2016, fourth-seeded German Angelique Kerber will look to break a 2-2 head-to-head deadlock against sixth-seeded Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro on Pat Rafter Arena today.
Kerber, the world No.10, clinched four titles on three surfaces in 2015 – Charleston and Stuttgart on clay, Birmingham on grass and Stanford on hard court. Fellow 27-year-old Suarez Navarro reached the quarterfinals or better in 10 of her first 11 tournaments. The world No.13 was runner-up three times in 2015, in Antwerp, Miami and Rome.
Two-time former Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka is aiming to reach her third Brisbane final when she meets 20-year-old qualifier Samantha Crawford tonight. The former world No.1, who captured her first tour title in Brisbane in 2009, has not lifted a trophy since 2013 and will start a strong favourite against the unheralded American, who is riding a six-match winning streak having won through qualifying.
Crawford made light work of former finalist Andrea Petkovic yesterday and Swiss seventh seed Belinda Bencic, while Azarenka was ruthless last night in wiping US Open finalist, Italian No.8 seed Roberta Vinci. Vinci’s coach Francesco Cina was so impressed, he could be heard telling his charge there was little she could do when with Azarenka “playing like God”.
Canadian fourth seed Milos Raonic did it the hard way in his opening match of 2016 yesterday, edging qualifier Ivan Dodig in three sets. A runner-up in Brisbane to Federer last year, Raonic made the Australian Open quarterfinals and landed one title in St Petersburg. In the quarterfinals he will clash for the first time with 78th-ranked Lucas Pouille, a surprise winner over Belgian No.6 seed David Goffin yesterday. The Frenchman reached semifinals in Auckland and Hamburg last season, both times as a qualifier.