MELBOURNE: Eight-time winner Novak Djokovic fought through what he had described as a tournament-ending injury to beat Milos Raonic and reach the Australian Open quarter-finals on Sunday.
Naomi Osaka and Serena Williams survived scares to go through but US Open champion Dominic Thiem was a major casualty when he fell to Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov.
Simona Halep avenged her crushing French Open defeat by Polish teenager Iga Swiatek to set up a meeting with Williams, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-Wei reached her first Slam quarter-final at the age of 35. Djokovic, the world number one, had raised the alarm over an abdominal injury after his five-set battle with Taylor Fritz, but he showed few outward signs in his 7-6 (7/4), 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 win.