After a day that saw packed crowds on all five courts at the Adelaide International, Thursday’s singles matches are all about a battle for a place in the semifinals.
First up on Centre Court is Australia’s Chris O’Connell. That he is playing the young gun Sebastian Korda in an intriguing match-up is almost incidental, after O’Connell pulled off the result of the Wednesday action to defeat emerging star Alexander Shevchenko 6-1 6-1 in just 60 minutes.
O’Connell, a relatively late bloomer at age 29, will launch the day’s play against the American with the famous father (Korda’s father Petr won the Australian Open singles crown in 1998) and famous sisters (professional golfers Nelly and Jessica) at 11am.
They have not met before and the big-hitting Korda – ranked world No.29 compared to the No.71 Aussie – will be the statistical favourite to proceed to the last four. But do not discount O’Connell, a popular player who gives his all every time.
> VIEW: Adelaide International day order of play
No.1 seed Tommy Paul, who defeated Australia’s Alex Bolt on Wednesday, will face Jack Draper in the early evening match on Centre Court at The Drive. Both men are regulars at the Adelaide event.
Draper will be happy he is not playing any earlier in the day, having taken a mammoth three hours and 39 minutes to get past Miomir Kecmanovic on Show Court 3 late on Wednesday afternoon. It was a high-energy party style atmosphere as he competed against the Serb, Draper eventually triumphing 5-7, 7-6(9) 7-6(7).
Draper will be hoping for a repeat of his straight-sets win over Paul in Adelaide a year ago, the only time the two have played.
Spectators heading to Show Court 1 are in for a treat, with the fourth match of the day in particular as Lorenzo Musetti – fresh from his blistering performance against Australia’s Jordan Thompson on Wednesday evening – takes on Alexander Bublik,
The big-serving Bublik, who stands 196 cm tall, was the winner of the pair’s only other meeting, two years ago on the grass courts of Queen’s in London.
In other quarterfinal matches, No. 2 men’s seed Nicolas Jarry from Chile will play Czech No.7 seed Jiri Lehecka in a first career meeting.
The No.2 women’s seed Jessica Pegula will be hoping for an easier ride on Thursday after dropping the first set to fellow American Bernarda Pera on Wednesday. She faces Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
There’s also a fascinating quarterfinal between Caroline Garcia and Jelena Ostapenko.
Laura Siegemund faces Daria Kasatkina, while Elena Rybakina – the No.1 seed at the WTA 500 tournament – faces Ekaterina Alexandrova in the remaining quarterfinal.
Rybakina, who claimed a sixth career title in Brisbane last week, is aiming to build on a six-match winning streak in Australia this summer.