Jannik Sinner brushed aside heat concerns to reach the Australian Open quarter-finals, while Iga Swiatek ended home hopes by overpowering Maddison Inglis in Melbourne.
Jannik Sinner swept aside concerns about his heat tolerance as he breezed to a 6-1, 6-3, 7-6(2) win over fellow Italian Luciano Darderi on Monday to reach his fourth Australian Open quarter-finals.
With the temperature rising to 33 degrees Celsius (91F) in the evening match at Margaret Court Arena, all eyes were on the defending champion following his dramatic cramping in the third round on a scorching day against American Eliot Spizzirri.
But there were no signs of trouble on Monday as Sinner ran full pelt from start to finish against 22nd seed Darderi, keeping court-time to a comfortable two hours and nine minutes.
"It was very, very difficult, first of all. We are very good friends off the court.
"I got very, very tired (in the third set) so I'm very happy I closed it in three sets."
While unseeded Spizzirri gave Sinner a scare with his tenacity and firepower, Argentine-born Darderi made the champion's job far easier by not turning up in the first two sets.
Sinner stormed to a 5-0 lead in the first before Darderi, in his first appearance in the last 16 of a Grand Slam, finally held serve.
Sinner faced four break points at 4-4 but saved them all
Sinner responded by serving out to love, wrapping up the set in 27 minutes with his 12th winner, a monstrous crosscourt forehand that kissed the sideline.
Struggling to stay in touch, Darderi completely lost his rag in the third game, and slammed his racket into the court when he slapped a loose backhand well over the baseline.
He fired a forehand wide to be broken on the next point and smashed a tennis ball high into the crowd to earn a code of conduct warning.
Though able to simmer down and hold serve a couple of times, Darderi double-faulted twice in succession to gift the second set and slumped in his chair to have a trainer work on a problematic left thigh.
Darderi dug deep, though, to make a game of the third set and gradually made inroads by attacking Sinner's forehand.
Sinner faced four break points at 4-4 but saved them all and returned the pressure on Darderi's serve.
Darderi saved two match points to delight the centre court crowd but it was a brief stay of execution as Sinner charged to a 6-2 lead in the tiebreak before closing it out when Darderi hit long.
Sinner will meet Ben Shelton, who saw off Casper Ruud, for a place in the semifinals.
Shelton sends Ruud packing
A fired-up Ben Shelton took top billing from the absent Novak Djokovic and reached his third Australian Open quarterfinal with a 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 win over Casper Ruud.
Djokovic was a shoo-in for the late-night slot at Rod Laver Arena but ended up a walkover into the quarterfinals when his opponent Jakub Mensik withdrew injured from their fourth round match.
Enter American Shelton, who shrugged off a slow start to deliver a crowd-pleasing win over 12th-seeded Norwegian Ruud.
Fans missing 10-times Australian Open champion Djokovic punctured the air with cries of "Go Novak!" during the match -- but Shelton took it with good humour.
"For me, atmosphere is everything. So I want to thank you guys for staying out here," the eighth seed said on court.
"I know you guys were probably looking forward to Novak tonight, I heard it from the stands.
"But I hope we didn't disappoint you with this match."
In the quarterfinals, Shelton may need to channel Djokovic circa 2023 to take down Sinner, having lost eight consecutive matches to the Italian, including in last year's semi-finals at Melbourne Park.
Swiatek thumps Inglis to end Australian hopes
Iga Swiatek ruthlessly ended Australian hopes at Melbourne Park on Tuesday, dispatching qualifier Maddison Inglis 6-0, 6-3 to reach the quarter-finals and continue her quest for a maiden Australian Open title to complete a career Grand Slam.
Inglis, 28, had reached the fourth round after her third-round opponent Naomi Osaka pulled out of the Grand Slam due to an abdominal injury.
The world number 168 was the final Australian in the women's singles draw.
Swiatek, who needed three sets to beat Russian Anna Kalinskaya in the previous round, produced a strong performance to defeat Inglis, firing off 22 winners.
"I felt pretty confident from the beginning. It felt like the pace of the ball was lot different from my last round. So I needed to adjust with my legs and really be precise with the footwork," the Polish world number two said.
Swiatek whitewashed Inglis in the opening set, with her powerful baseline returns and movement proving too much for the Australian to handle.
Inglis managed to break Swiatek's serve in the opening game of the second set, raising her arms in celebration to raucous cheers from Australian spectators at Rod Laver Arena.
However, the joy was short-lived.
Swiatek ratcheted up the intensity and, though Inglis was able to hold serve twice to add respectability to the scoreline, the six-times Grand Slam champion wrapped up the win in an hour and 13 minutes to enter her third Australian Open quarter-final.
She faces 2022 Wimbledon winner Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan.
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