FORM is a massive indicator when it comes to success and the four players through to the quarter finals in the bottom half of the Australian Open Men’s draw certainly have that, as we look at the first four players through to the final eight.

A red-hot Milos Raonic continued his perfect Australian Open campaign with his fourth consecutive straight sets win. He knocked off Croatian Marin Cilic 6-4 6-3 7-5, backing up his huge victory over sixth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas in the third round. He only just snuck into the seedings for the Australian Open but has made it all the way to the qualifying finals where the Canadian has made it five of the past six years with great consistency at Melbourne Park. In the fourth round, Raonic won in two hours and 19 minutes, and most crucially broke his opponent in the eleventh game of the third set to set up the victory. In the match her served 35 aces and hit 55 winners, producing a first serve percentage of 73, and winning 80 per cent of those points. He was not broken once, but broke the Croatian three times from eight eight opportunities. Unfortunately despite all the form he is in, he runs into the one player that is virtually unbeatable at Melbourne Park in Novak Djokovic.

The seven-time winner and reigning champion tossed aside 14th seed Diego Schwartzman in straight sets to book yet another quarter finals appearance. It took the world number two just over two hours to get it done, breaking in each set to ensure he did enough to avoid any tiebreakers. In the match he served eight aces and won 75 and 68 per cent of his first and second serve points, while hitting 38 winners and controlling the net when approaching. He broke four times in total to Schwartzman’s once, the first time he had been broken in the tournament. Schwartzman played well, with 17 winners and managing to win 27 per cent of his receiving points, but lacking a damaging serve meant the world number two took advantage and put the 14th seed back in his place. Now Djokovic will have to face a completely different player in Raonic with the big serving Canadian a whole different story when it comes to breaks.

Tennys Sandgren became the only unseeded player in the quarter finals after downing 12th seed, Fabio Fognini in four sets. In a match unsurprisingly without controversy – which tends to follow the fiery Fognini everywhere – Sandgren won the first two sets before Fognini won a crucial tiebreaker and it looked like he might be able to dig himself out of trouble for the third match at the Open. But it was more a case of three strikes and you are out, as he had previously dropped two sets to both Reilly Opelka and Jordan Thompson before steadying to win in five sets. Instead, it was the American world number 100 who booked a spot in the last eight courtesy of a three-hour and 27-minute 7-6 7-5 6-7 6-4 victory, which was capped off by a massive final game where Sandgren hit five winners to break Fognini and take the match. He served up 21 aces, won 73 per cent of his first serve points, and broke on all five of his break point opportunities. Fognini was fairly even with the American across the board, more dominant at the net with a 74 per cent success rate, but he only broke three of eight opportunities to drop out of the Open in the Round of 16.

Now Sandgren has to step up to another level and try and take down one of the greatest of all-time after Roger Federer said enough was enough of Hungarian, Marton Fucsovic‘s giant-killing spree this Open. Federer showed after a minor first set hiccup that he was going to make the most of not going down to Australia’s John Millman in the third round, running away the the contest 4-6 6-1 6-2 6-2 in a vintage Federer performance. In two hours and 11 minutes, Federer dominated across all the statistical areas, hitting five aces and 44 winners with only 36 unforced errors – much lower than his total against Millman. He won 84 per cent of his points at the net, and attacked his opponents’ serve with 44 per cent of his receiving points as well in a game where very few could have stopped the Fed Express at full speed.

T. Sandgren (USA) defeated [12] F. Fognini (ITA) 7-5 7-5 6-7 6-4
[3] R. Federer (SUI) defeated M. Fucsovics (HUN) 4-6 6-1 6-2 6-2
[32] M. Raonic (CAN) defeated M. Cilic (CRO) 6-4 6-3 7-5
[2] N. Djokovic (SRB) defeated [14] D. Schwartzman (ARG) 6-3 6-4 6-4