Top guns hit rock bottom at Australian Open

MELBOURNE: It was a Sunday to forget for top seeds and World No.1s Andy Murray and Angelique Kerber as both crashed out of the Australian Open in the fourth round on Sunday. Murray lost to unheralded German Mischa Zverev and Kerber to up and coming American Coco Vandeweghe.Mischa and his younger sibling Alexander 'Sascha' have been raised and coached by their father Alexander (Sr.), a former pro from Russia, and mother Irena, also a tennis coach. Mischa's journey, battling injury and motivation issues, has been vastly different to that of his 19-year-old kid brother, the youngest player in the top-50 of the ATP world rankings. While Alexander, ranked 24, raced on the wheels of his talent, Mischa, aged 29, weighed in for the grind.On Sunday, the Moscowborn, Monte Carlo resident tried to make up for lost time in the fourth round of the Australian Open, playing the World No.1 Murray. Mischa made 119 trips to the net in the 3-hour 34-minute encounter, winning 70 of those points at the Rod Laver Arena to enter his first major quarterfinals with a 7-5, 5-7, 6-2, 6-4 win.After breaking Murray in the first game of the fourth set, Mischa was rolling. All he had to do was hold serve against the best returner in business. In the eighth game, when he buried a sitter into the net, it looked like nerves had caught up with his serve. Mischa looked up at his box, his mother smiled 'just as she always does at practice' and his brother cheered, calming him down as he went on to close out the game and then serve out the match.Murray, a five-time finalist here, said: “I don't think it's someone coming in. It's the shots he was coming up with when he came forward. He deserved to win; he played great when he was down and also in the important moments.”
Mischa, 6 ft 3', who said it was the best match of his life, stressed: “I believed in myself. I believed in my game. I believed that playing serve and volley against him, slicing a lot, trying to destroy his rhythm was going to work.” At the end of it all, his family on their feet, like the crowd, Mischa flashed a weary smile - the look of a man who had logged the miles. The seasoned pro called his younger sibling, who on Saturday lost to Rafael Nadal in five sets on the same court, 'his inspiration'.Mishca, who was ranked in the top-50 in 2009, struggled with a series of injuries - fractured wrist and ribs and a herniated disc. “Also I didn't focus enough on tennis. I needed to drop to the bottom, start from scratch,” the seasoned pro, who dabbled with some coaching when he was injured, said after the win.“I started travelling with some juniors. I went with them to some Futures in south Texas, not the nicest place. I realised I missed playing myself and I still felt like I could do some damage on court,” Mishca who started working on his return to tennis in the winter of 2014, said. “When I came back from wrist surgery two years ago, it was my brother who said, 'You can make it back, you can be top 100 again, be a great player'. He's the kind of person who'll say 'Don't confuse me with facts.' Facts are not always helpful. I have to say thank you to my brother.”The Zverevs have reversed an old order. The younger has shown the way, and the older followed; with pride and new-found belief. The scenario was no different in the women's draw. Top-seed and defending champion Angelique Kerber was overpowered by American power player Vandaweghe 6-2, 6-3.Vandeweghe, who'll play Spain's Garbine Muguruza in the last eight, slammed 30 winners in the 68-minute contest and then strolled to the net in a fashion that seemed to suggest, 'what's the fuss about'. “It was really special, beating the No.1 on any stage and any place is great,” the American said. “I'll take this one. I wasn't feeling confident, I guess I faked it.”Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, put out compatriot Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-3, 6-3 and will play 36-year-old American Venus Williams, a 6-3, 7-5 victor over Mona Barthel.