Round 4 of the 2025 Australian Open is halfway over, and the next stop is the quarterfinals. For those who punched their ticket on Sunday, the trophy is in sight.
The number of Americans in the field has dwindled, but Coco Gauff continues to get the job done on the court. The No. 3 seed dropped her first set against Belinda Bencic, but roared back to conquer the second and third sets, winning 5-7, 6-2, 6-1 in two hours and 26 minutes.
At the end of the match, Gauff used her written camera message to mourn the (possibly temporary) death of the social platform TikTok in the U.S.
Tommy Paul, the No. 12 seed and the highest-ranked American man remaining in the tournament, took care of business in a big way against Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, defeating him 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 in just 87 minutes. His next match against Alexander Zverev will be just his third overall appearance in a Grand Slam quarterfinal, though he has succeeded at the Aussie Open before. His best Grand Slam result came at the 2023 Australian Open when he made it to the semifinals.
Carlos Alcaraz, the No. 3 seed in men’s singles, caught a bit of a break in his Round 4 match when his opponent, Jack Draper, retired after two sets with a hip injury. Draper had a shot to win the first set before Alcaraz won 7-5, but his level of play dropped sharply in the second set as his “ticking time bomb” of a hip injury hampered him enough to force his retirement after one hour and 35 minutes.
No. 1 seed and defending champion Aryna Sabalenka sailed past Mirra Andreeva, winning 6-1, 6-2 in just 62 minutes. She has yet to lose a single set in the tournament. No. 2 men’s seed Alexander Zverev had a mostly easy time against Ugo Humbert, winning 6-1, 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 but dropping his first set of the competition. Also moving on to the quarterfinals are No. 11 Paula Badosa and No. 27 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who upset No. 18 Donna Vekić.
Novak Djokovic boycotts post-match interview
Novak Djokovic will face Alcaraz in the quarterfinals after defeating Jiri Lehecka 6-3, 6-4, 7-6(4), but true to form, Djokovic’s non-tennis behavior has again made headlines. Djokovic skipped the traditional post-win on-court interview as a protest against Channel Nine broadcaster Tony Jones, who last week garnered criticism for a TV segment in which he mocked Serbian fans and Djokovic himself.
“Welcome back to Melbourne Park, where you can see the Novak Djokovic fans, they’re in full voice. The chants are quite extraordinary,” Jones said to open the segment. He then turned to the Serbian fans, who had been chanting in a crowd behind him, and began to sing to them.
“Novak, he’s overrated. Novak’s a has-been. Novak, kick him out. Boy, I’m glad they can’t hear me,” Jones said.
Djokovic spoke to the crowd after his Round 4 win without the aid of a microphone, and when interviewer Jim Courier tried to hand him the microphone, Djokovic refused it.
“Couple days ago the famous sports journalist, who works for official broadcaster Channel Nine here in Australia, made a mockery of Serbian fans and also made insulting and offensive comments towards me,” Djokovic told the crowd via the Guardian. “And since then, he chose not to issue any public apology. Neither did Channel Nine. So since they’re official broadcasters, I chose not to give interviews for Channel Nine.”
