Australian Open 2013 Day 8 - Serena and Roger impress
There were victories on day 8 of the championships for Victoria Azarenka, Andy Murray, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Jeremy Chardy, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Sloane Stephens.
But the two players to impress me the most were the two players I want to win the title in Melbourne - 31 year-old Wimbledon Champions Serena Williams and Roger Federer.
Third seed Williams remains on course both for a 6th Australian crown and a return to the No.1 ranking after routing 14th seed Maria Kirilenko 6-2, 6-0 in 57 minutes.
The American went down love-40 on serve in the opening game and it looked like it could be a tricky evening for the five-time champion. Those feelings ended pretty rapidly as she reeled off five quickfire points to hold and then set about taking Kirilenko's consistent game apart.
Serena got in 87% of first serves in the first set and 79% in the second - daunting enough stats for any opponent. This coupled with 22 winners to just 6 unforced errors from the American led to a short evening on court for Olympic doubles bronze-medallist Kirilenko.
Williams meant business and when she means business watch out! She's now surpassed her fourth round performance from 12 months ago and is a clear favourite for the title and to regain the top spot for the first time since October 2010.
Four-time Australian Champion Federer followed Williams onto the Rod Laver arena to face rising star and 13th seed Milos Raonic.
The tall Canadian truly has a thunderbolt of a serve - plus the support of one of my friends as his No.1 fan - and lots of potential to crack the top 10 in the near future. However the areas for improvement in his game were exposed yesterday by a superb Federer.
Raonic led on aces (19 to 14) and overall on winners (37 to 34) and yet the key stats were Federer's 12 unforced errors to Raonic's 41 and Federer's conversion of 3 from 7 break points whereas Raonic did not see a break point during the 1 hour and 53 minute contest.
Federer was calm, patient and took his chances when they came. He had the superior returns, groundstrokes - off both flanks - and volleys.
In particular Raonic was found wanting at the net on a few occasions, crucially when serving to stay in the first set at 4-5 the 22 year-old made a mess of a couple of volleys at close range to fall behind.
The second seeded Swiss had to wait until the tie-break for a chance in the second set and he took it with two mini-breaks - a backhand pass whipped down the line and then a forehand winner thumped down the line on set point.
As against Tomic; Federer pulled away in the third as the Canadian's resistance lessened and it was 4-0 to the Wimbledon Champion in no time.
Federer moves into his 35th consecutive major quarter final still unbroken in the tournament. If he can continue in particular to serve this way he is going to be very hard to stop.
A much anticipated semi-final encounter with Murray is looming but first both have Frenchmen to contend with in the form of Tsonga and Chardy.
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