MELBOURNE, Australia — Venus Williams reached the quarterfinals at the Australian Open for the first time in five years and James Blake for the first time, period.
Roger Federer advanced, as usual.
Federer, aiming for a third consecutive Australian title and a fourth in five years, had to save two set points in the tiebreaker en route to a 6-4, 7-6 (7), 6-3 fourth-round win over No. 13 Tomas Berdych earlier today.
The Swiss star is into his fifth straight quarterfinal at Melbourne Park and next will play Blake.
Blake beat 19-year-old Croatian Marin Cilic 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 on Margaret Court Arena to equal his best run at a major following quarterfinal appearances at the U.S. Open in 2005 and ‘06.
That was the good news. The bad: he lost to Federer in four sets at the ‘06 U.S. Open quarterfinals.
Williams advanced with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Poland’s Marta Domachowska at Melbourne Park and will next play No. 4-ranked Ana Ivanovic.
Williams, in her first tournament since withdrawing from the season-ending champion at Madrid in November due to illness, lost in the final here in 2003 to her sister Serena and had not gone beyond the fourth round at the season’s opening major since.
Venus Williams has six Grand Slam singles titles, but her run to the 2003 final remains her best performance in the season’s first major.
“I have come close, then this girl named Williams took my dream away,” Venus said of her Australian aspirations.
Serena Williams, the defending champion, moved into the quarterfinals on Sunday along with top-ranked Justine Henin and last year’s finalist Maria Sharapova, seeded fifth.
Serena will play No. 3 Jelana Jankovic and Henin is against Sharapova.
After her 6-1, 7-6 (2) win earlier today over Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki, Ivanovic was looking forward to her quarterfinal match.
Venus Williams “is definitely a tough opponent. Last two Grand Slams I lost to her. Exactly the time for some revenge,” Ivanovic said.
In the adjacent quarter of the draw, No. 9 Daniela Hantuchova needed four match points before finishing off Maria Kirilenko 1-6, 6-4, 6-4 and will next play Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska, who upset No. 14 Nadia Petrova 1-6, 7-5, 6-0.
Federer was taken to 10-8 in the fifth set of his third-round match against Janko Tipsaravic, and was happier with a quicker finish.
“I like this one today better, after all,” he said. “I’m quite pleased with the result, pulling up from a tough match.”
Berdych, with a strong serve and sharp groundstrokes, had a tendency for poorly executed drop shots at critical times. He dumped one into the net while getting broken for the only time in the first set while serving at 4-4, then again serving at 6-5 in the second-set tiebreaker after Federer rallied from 2-5.
Berdych squandered a second set point at 7-6 when he flailed a forehand long off an easy short ball, and Federer ran off the last three points.
Federer got an early break in the third set, then held the rest of the way.
Venus Williams had her hands full with Domachowska. Far from being intimidated by Williams’ power, Domachowska matched it with her own — she had aces on three of her first five serves — along with a variety of spins.
Williams had to fight back twice from service breaks in the first set, getting back on serve when Domachowska double-faulted on break point, then took the set when the Polish woman netted a straightforward forehand volley.
Williams got the first break of the second set to pull ahead 5-3. Domachowska fended off a match point before breaking back.
Domachowska set up a second match point for Williams with one error while serving 30-30 in the next game, then netted a forehand to finish it off.
“It’s good, it gets me ready for the rounds going forward,” Williams said of the close match.
Henin beat Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei on Sunday and now will put her 32-match winning streak on the line against Sharapova in their first meeting since the season-ending championship final in Madrid.
Sharapova pounded fellow Russian Elena Dementieva 6-2, 6-0, breaking the 11th-ranked player in six of her seven service games, including one at love to finish off the match in 62 minutes.
“Justine’s the one to beat,” Sharapova said. “She’s on a pretty good winning streak, but every match is new.”
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