UNLIKE much of the tournament so far, yesterday’s women’s singles action at the Australian Open went pretty much to script.

The winner who had the trickiest outing was Barbora Krejcikova, who ultimately did end the impressive debut tournament of Mirra Andreeva.

After the Russian took the first set, the Czech fought back control to take the next two sets and win the match 4 – 6, 6 – 3, 6 – 2.

Double faults were plentiful in the match, with both players serving five of them in the match. The unforced errors were high too, with Andreeeva winning that 34 to 39.

Interestingly, Andreeva had the higher percentage of first serves in, but Krejcikova had the higher percentage of wins off both first and second serve.

However crucially for Krejcikova, she dominated the winners category, winning that 32 to 19. She also won a higher percentage of break points (55% to 44%).

Krejcikova’s next opponent is second seed Aryna Sabalenka, who had a pretty cruisy win yesterday over Amanda Anisimova.

Taking just over an hour to defeat the American, Sabalenka dominated the wins off first serve and smashed double the number of aces past Anisimova compared to what the American served in return. Sabalenka also won half the break points she faced, whereas Anisimova did not win any.

The other two Day 8 winners did not have as much of a challenge passing past their opponents.

Coco Gauff only dropped three games on her way to defeating Magdalena Frech, as did Marta Kostyuk on her way to beating Maria Timofeeva.

RESULTS:

2024 Australian Open – Day 8

C. Gauff [4] def. M. Frech 6 – 1, 6 – 2

A. Sabalenka [2] def. A. Anisimova 6 – 3, 6 – 2

B. Krejcikova [9] def. M. Andreeva 4 – 6, 6 – 3, 6 – 2

M. Kostyuk def. M. Timofeeva [Q] 6 – 2, 6 – 1