Tennis:Novak Djokovic weathered a gallant challenge from a tenacious Lleyton Hewitt to send the last Australian in the draw packing and make the quarter-finals of the Australian Open. While most at the packed Rod Laver Arena hoped for a shock, few expected it to materialise but 30-year-old Hewitt rode the crowd's emotion to poach a set off the world number one before going down fighting 6-1 6-3 4-6 6-3.
Dressed in black and prowling panther-like across the baseline, Djokovic was in no mood for sentiment as he motored through the first two sets. Coasting at 3-0 up in the third set, Djokovic stumbled on serve to allow his gritty opponent to fight back then take the match to a fourth after the Serb netted on set point.
Djokovic captured the decisive break at 3-2 in the fourth and sealed the match with a booming backhand down the line. The top seed will now play David Ferrer in the quarter-finals.
Andy Murray described as “boring” his 49-minute stroll against Mikhail Kukushkin but admitted it was good to get through to the quarter-finals with the minimum of effort.
Kukushkin was struggling from the outset with a left hip flexor problem, an injury sustained during his epic five-set win over Gael Monfils in the previous round, and was unable to put up a fight in what quickly became a lifeless encounter.
The unassuming Kazakh dragged it out for just over two sets but sensibly opted to retire when trailing 6-1 6-1 1-0 and with no chance of turning it around.
It was far from ideal for the crowd and Murray, who will play Kei Nishikori next following the Japanese player’s victory over sixth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, admitted he too had taken little enjoyment from it.
“It was boring,” he said. “There was nothing happening on the court. I didn’t have to do anything, just hit the ball in court and he wasn’t running. He was making mistakes the first or second ball of the rally. That was it.”
The fourth seed felt Kukushkin had made the right decision to pull out when he did.
“Yeah, because it was pointless, he wasn’t running,” he added. “The people probably weren’t enjoying the match, I certainly wasn’t. There wasn’t any good points because he couldn’t move properly. Sometimes it’s just best to stop. I get to conserve a bit of energy but he was obviously struggling.”
Murray had no idea coming into the match that the world number 92 was carrying a problem.
“We practised on the court next to each other this morning, we both practised for about 40 minutes,” he said.
“I saw him bouncing around before he went on court and it wasn’t until I went up 3-0 pretty quickly I realised he wasn’t really moving.”
Although he was clearly underwhelmed by today’s events, Murray was pleased to have spent such little time on court, especially as Nishikori had to battle for five sets over three and a half hours to see off Tsonga.
“It’s perfect because you conserve energy,” the 24-year-old said. “You just need to make sure you hit enough balls tomorrow to make sure you don’t lose any rhythm. At this stage of the tournament, to be off court in 45 minutes or so is not bad.”