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Manoj BhagavatulaESPN
Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka won their respective quarterfinals at the Australian Open on Tuesday to set up a blockbuster semifinal. On the men’s side, Russian qualifier Aslan Karatsev continued his dream run with a win over an injured Grigor Dimitrov, while Novak Djokovic edged Alexander Zverev to book his last-four berth.
Here are the best stats from the action.
40
Serena’s 6-3, 6-3 win over Simona Halep puts her in her 40th career Grand Slam semifinal, which is the third-most among women in the Open Era (since 1968), trailing only Chris Evert (52) and Martina Navratilova (44).
362
Serena now has 362 match wins at majors, tying Roger Federer for the most by a male or female player in the Open Era.
47-15
Serena’s win-loss record against WTA Top-2 players now improves to 47-15. It is the most such wins by any woman since the rankings were introduced in 1975.
202
With his 6-7 (6), 6-2, 6-4, 7-6 (6) win over Zverev, Djokovic has played 202 games to reach the semifinals. That is the third-most games needed by a male No. 1 seed to reach the semifinals of a Grand Slam in the Open Era. The men who played more games are Ivan Lendl (225 at Wimbledon 1988) and Pete Sampras (213 at 1996 French Open), both of whom lost their semifinals.
32
The win over Zverev is Djokovic’s 32nd Grand Slam match win after losing the first set, tied for the fourth-most by any man in the Open Era. The only players with more such victories are Andre Agassi, Federer and Lendl.
9
This is the ninth time Djokovic has made the Australian Open semifinal. He has gone on to win the title on all eight previous occasions.
3
With her 6-2, 6-2 win over Chinese Taipei’s Hsieh Su-Wei, Osaka is now the third woman in the Open Era (since 1968) to win each of her first four Grand Slam quarterfinal appearances, after Chris Evert, who won her first 48 major quarterfinals, and Elena Dementieva.
31-2
Osaka’s win-loss record at hardcourt majors since the start of the 2018 US Open. It is the most such wins by a woman in that span. In addition, Osaka is now 19-0 since the tour resumed last season after suspension due to the coronavirus pandemic.
1
With his 2-6, 6-4, 6-1, 6-2 win over Bulgaria’s Dimitrov, Karatsev is the first man in the Open Era to reach the semifinals in his debut at a Grand Slam. He is the third player, male or female, in the last 40 years to reach the semifinals in their major debut, after Monica Seles (1989 French Open) and Jennifer Capriati (1990 French Open).
5
Karatsev is also the fifth men’s qualifier in the Open Era to reach the semifinals at a Grand Slam, and the first to do so since Vladimir Voltchkov at Wimbledon in 2000.
114
Karatsev’s ranking coming into the tournament, making him the lowest-ranked men’s semifinalist at any Grand Slam since World No. 125 Goran Ivanisevic, who went on to win Wimbledon in 2001 as a wild card. At the Australian Open specifically, Karatsev is the lowest-ranked men’s semifinalist since Patrick McEnroe, who was also ranked 114, in 1991.
(Stats courtesy ESPN’s Statistics & Information Group)