{"id":22166,"date":"2020-02-03T14:59:11","date_gmt":"2020-02-03T13:59:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/culturedarm.com\/staging\/5793\/?p=22166"},"modified":"2020-02-14T18:13:32","modified_gmt":"2020-02-14T17:13:32","slug":"cultureteca-02-02-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/culturedarm.com\/staging\/5793\/cultureteca-02-02-20\/","title":{"rendered":"Cultureteca 02.02.20"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Australian Open<\/strong> moved into its second week without a plethora of fancied women following the departures on Friday and Saturday of top-ten seeds Naomi Osaka, Serena Williams, Madison Keys, Karol\u00edna Pl\u00ed\u0161kov\u00e1, Elina Svitolina, and Belinda Bencic<\/a>, and Caroline Wozniacki also said her goodbyes, retiring from the tour after her third-round loss to Ons Jabeur<\/a>, but the men’s draw at least remained more or less intact. On Monday of the second week, fourth seed Daniil Medvedev joined Stefanos Tsitsipas, Matteo Berrettini, and Roberto Bautista Agut among the top-ten men left whimpering on the sidelines, as he was outfought in five sets by Stan Wawrinka<\/a>, while another top seed in the women’s draw fell in the form of ninth-seed Kiki Bertens, beaten in straight sets by a resurgent Garbi\u00f1e Muguruza<\/a>. Simona Halep and Dominic Thiem handily progressed to the quarter-final stage of the tournament, while Rafa Nadal managed his way past Nick Kyrgios in the featured bout of the fourth round<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ons Jabeur had already made history, beating Wozniacki and then Serena Williams conqueror Wang Qiang to become the first Arab woman to make the quarter-finals of a major<\/a>, but the semi-finals proved a step too far as she was defeated in straight sets by an impressive Sofia Kenin. Home favourite Ash Barty dispatched last year’s finalist Petra Kvitov\u00e1 in similar fashion<\/a>, while Novak Djokovic made light work of a supposedly stern test in Milos Raonic, manhandling the big-serving Canadian over the course of three seamless sets. Roger Federer had already cut things close in the third round, with a last-gasp five-set victory over local hero John Millman, but in the quarters he pushed it further still, saving seven match points before finally ousting Tennys Sandgren<\/a>. Halep and Muguruza strolled towards their semi-final matchup, but in two surprising results on the men’s side of the draw, youth prevailed as Alexander Zverev beat Wawrinka to reach his first Grand Slam semi-final<\/a>, while Dominic Thiem proved more capable on the hard courts as in four sets – thanks to three tie-breaks – he avenged successive French Open final losses to Nadal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Two close-fought semi-finals on the women’s side saw Muguruza and Kenin triumph over slight favourites Halep and Barty, the departure of the world number one ending Australian interest in the draw<\/a>. Meanwhile Djokovic stormed past Federer and Thiem edged past Zverev in four sets. Muguruza then was the firm favourite heading into the women’s final: despite injuries, coaching splits, and mixed form reducing her to a low of 36 in the rankings, leaving her just outside of the seeds heading into the tournament, the two-time Grand Slam winner still had experience to fall back on while this was Kenin’s first major final, and in fact the first time in a Grand Slam that the 21-year-old had progressed beyond the fourth round. Still in keeping with the nature of the tournament, despite an ominous first set, Kenin rebounded to surge past Muguruza 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 and claim her maiden major<\/a>. In the process she became the youngest Australian Open champion since Maria Sharapova back in 2008<\/a>. It was a more familiar story in the men’s final, where Thiem showed real promise until the midway point of the fourth set. Then an at times disgruntled Djokovic took over despite the deficit, winning an astonishing and record-stretching eighth Australian Open title 6-4, 4-6, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4<\/a>.<\/p>\n