January 24, 2023

Is Novak Djokovic faking an injury? Pod divided over the biggest story of the Australian Open quarter-finals

1 hour 16 minutes

Tennis coach Calvin Betton joins writer George Bellshaw and inews.co.uk journalist James Gray to talk through the biggest issues from the third and fourth rounds of the Australian Open and look ahead to the second week:

Novak Djokovic is through after he absolutely marmalised Alex De Minaur 6-2 6-1 6-2 - but is he carry an injury or is he playing possum?

Djokovic says he is being victimised: “I leave the doubting to those people – let them doubt. Only my injuries are questioned. When some other players are injured, then they are the victims, but when it is me, I am faking it. It is very interesting… I don’t feel that I need to prove anything to anyone."

Stefanos Tsitsipas and Jannik Sinner went five sets, Tsitsipas taking the first two and Sinner taking the next two before the Greek took the decider.

Tsitsipas said afterwards: “I think that I just released my arm a little bit, released my wrist on the serve. That helped me a lot to generate more power and accuracy, something that I wasn’t doing before. It completely changed the way I approached this match.”

Andrey Rublev beat Holger Rune in possibly the best match tie-break ever, coming from 5-0 down to win it. Rune also served for the match at 5-3 and was broken to love, and also had match points at 4-5.

Ben Shelton has never been outside America and is now a grand slam quarter-finalist, how far can he go?

Iga Swiatek is out, beaten by Elena Rybakina and Coco Gauff was shocked by Jelena Ostapenko.

Gauff, through tears of frustration, said she would take her anger out playing doubles with Jessica Pegula.

Who now will triumph from a wide open women's draw with Wimbledon champion Rybakina going well?

In the bottom half, Magda Linette is the surprise package - or is it Karolina Pliskova, finally delivering an elite grand slam performance?

Aryna Sabalenka seems to have her demons under control, but for how long?

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By Tennis Unfiltered

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