Lleyton Hewitt won an epic battle with Spanish teenager Rafael Nadal on Monday and Alicia Molik upset former world number one Venus Williams to raise hopes of a home champion at the Australian Open.
Third seed Hewitt clawed his way back from the brink of defeat to win 7-5, 3-6, 1-6, 7-6, 6-2 while Molik rode her booming serve to a 7-5, 7-6 victory over Williams.
| |||||||||||
Myskina, the WTA player of the year, fell 6-4, 6-2, to Nathalie Dechy after Dementieva, a finalist in two of the last three Grand Slams, was upset by Swiss Patty Schnyder 6-7, 7-6, 6-2.
Hewitt was in deep trouble when unseeded Nadal strung together nine successive games to set up a two-sets-to-one lead before the Australian produced one of his greatest comebacks.
"It's amazing how many matches I've been able to win throughout my career by giving 100 percent out there," Hewitt said.
"That never-say-die attitude, yet again, it gets me through another big match."
FUTURE CHAMPION
Nadal has been tipped as a Grand Slam champion after helping Spain win last year's Davis Cup and the 18-year-old said his performance against Hewitt had shown him he has what it takes.
"I am happy because he is number three in the world and I played the same as him today. If I play at this level, I can do important things this year," Nadal said.
It has been more than a quarter of a century since an Australian won either singles titles in Melbourne and the host nation is suddenly in with a chance of winning both after Molik scored the biggest win of her life.
Unbeaten in the three tournaments she has played this year, the homegrown 10th seed fired seven aces past a bewildered Williams to set up a meeting with world number one Lindsay Davenport on Wednesday -- Australia Day.
Davenport defied the rash of upsets with a 6-2, 6-2 thrashing of Croatia's Karolina Sprem.
"More than reaching the quarter-finals, I think it's a huge feat that I beat Venus and beat her the way that I did," Molik said.
"I beat her playing my tennis. I didn't wait for her to make mistakes. That's something I can be pretty proud of."
Williams believed she should have won the match. "Obviously she's playing better but I just didn't play that well. If I was playing five percent better, this match is going to be mine."
The Russians seemed to have the women's tournament at their mercy after seven players marched into the round of 16 but only two survived to the quarter-finals after the shock defeats of Myskina and Dementieva on Monday.
The remaining Russians, Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova and US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova, meet on Tuesday for a place in the semi-finals.
Myskina made 45 unforced errors in her loss to Dechy only for Dementieva to commit 61 unforced errors.
"It was just a bad day today," Myskina said. "It wasn't a Russian day."
Russia had something to celebrate, however, when Nikolay Davydenko beat Argentine Guillermo Canas 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 to join compatriot Marat Safin in the last eight of the men's draw.
SHOCK LOSS
Davydenko, the 26th seed, plays world number two Andy Roddick in the quarters after the American blasted past Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-3, 7-6, 6-1.
The big-hitting Roddick was never in serious trouble against Kohlschreiber despite what he said was his least convincing performance of the tournament.
"The good thing is I don't feel like I had my best day and we're sitting here talking about a three-set win," he said.
David Nalbandian kept the Argentine flag flying when he beat compatriot Guillermo Coria, seeded sixth, 5-7, 7-5, 6-3, 6-0, in a marathon match that lasted nearly 3-1/2 hours and did not finish until after 2 a.m. on Tuesday.
Ninth seed Nalbandian plays Hewitt in the quarters.
More from rediff