Wozniacki, Svitolina aim for semis showdown

MELBOURNE: In-form duo Caroline Wozniacki and Elina Svitolina step up their quest for a first Grand Slam title aiming to avoid potential banana skins in the Australian Open quarter-finals Tuesday.

Second seed Wozniacki reached eight finals in 2017, winning twice, while fourth-ranked Svitolina won five WTA titles. They are on collision course for an expected semi-final showdown at Melbourne Park.

Wozniacki routed 19th seed Magdalena Rybarikova 6-3, 6-0 in round four and faces a familiar foe in Carla Suarez Navarro, whose two wins in seven career meetings with the Dane have both been on the Spaniard’s favoured clay.

“Obviously hard courts are a little different,” said Wozniacki. “But we’ve had a lot of tough encounters on hard courts as well. Three-set gruelling matches. I’m expecting a tough fight.” Svitolina, who won the Brisbane International to kick off her season, is on a nine-match win streak this year and also faces an unseeded opponent in Belgium’s Elise Mertens. The world number 37 has similarly enjoyed an unbeaten start to 2018, winning the warm-up Hobart International, and Svitolina is not surprised to meet her in the last eight.“She was playing great tennis, and, you know, she can produce really good and high-level tennis,” said the world number four after storming past qualifier Denisa Allertova 6-3, 6-0 in 57 minutes in the last round. “You know, she’s been playing well, definitely. I didn’t see so many of her matches here, but if she’s in quarter-finals, definitely she deserves to be there. There is no easy ways to get into a quarter-final.”

Cilic obstacle in way of Nadal semis quest: Rafael Nadal sees his quarter-final showdown with big-match player Marin Cilic on Tuesday as the time to crank up his Australian Open offensive for Grand Slam number 17.

The Spanish world No.1 has been in ominous form in the first week after coming into the year’s opening major tournament with knee concerns. Nadal, who lost to Roger Federer in last year’s final, overcame tenacious Argentine Diego Schwartzman in a classic round of 16 encounter and will have to get past former US Open champion Cilic to reach the semi-finals.

In Tuesday’s other quarter-final in the top half of the draw, Bulgaria’s world No.3 Grigor Dimitrov is up against British hope and 49th-ranked Kyle Edmund for a place in the last four. Nadal leads world No.6 Cilic 5-1 in career meetings, including a straight sets win over the Croat in the round of 16 in Melbourne in 2011. “Now is the moment to make a step forward, to play again more aggressive,” Nadal said. “I know I’m going to have a tough opponent with Cilic. I need to play aggressive and play well.” Nadal is respectful of the Croat’s abilities and is expecting another ding-dong struggle with last year’s Wimbledon finalist.

“Marin will be a tough one, but at the same time, it’s a beautiful match to play against a great player,” he said. “We know each other. We’ve played a couple of times and I know I need to play well. I hope to be ready to make that happen.”