Australian Open 2025 Day 8 Summary

Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz meet in Tuesday’s quarter-finals after both men comfortably progressed to the last eight on Sunday.

During the day session, both matches were suspended for the same reason: Jack Draper and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina could not muster enough physical strength to compete after their previous five-set performance in the tournament.

Draper was forced to retire against Carlos Alcaraz at Rod Laver, with the Spaniard leading 7-5, 6-1. A hip problem prevented the Briton from continuing. Fokina completed his match, but he finally offered little resistance as he fell to Tommy Paul 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 in just 87 minutes.

Away at the John Cain Arena, Sascha Zverev dropped his first set of the tournament but recovered nicely to take out the dangerous Ugo Humbert 6-1 2-6 6-3 6-2.

In the night session, Novak Djokovic faced 24th seed Jiri Lehecka, who, like his compatriot Tomas Machac, had been expected to be a tough test for the 10-time champion.

However, another blowout followed in straight sets as Djokovic controlled the match from start to finish, the only blip when he failed to consolidate a break at the start of set 3.

Day Eight 2025 Australian Open Round of 16 Results

Alcaraz steps through after Draper’s retirement

Given Jack Draper’s three straight five-setters in Melbourne, there were always going to be significant question marks over whether he could hold his own against 3rd seed Carlos Alcaraz.

The answer was no, as the Briton was forced to retire at 6-7 1-6 down due to a hip injury, something he dealt with in the off-season that prevented him from going over to Spain to train with Alcaraz. He revealed at the press conference that he has tendinitis.

With only two sets played, there wasn’t much to see, but we once again saw Alcaraz slip into his unforced error mode as he led 5-2, allowing Draper to tie the game at 5-5.

But Alcaraz can usually regain focus quickly, and from there he won eight of the next nine matches, with Draper receiving medical attention off the court after the first set.

This is not how I want to win the match to advance to the next round. “I’m just happy to play in another quarter-final in Australia, but a bit sad for Jack, he’s a nice person. He doesn’t deserve to be injured. He couldn’t prepare the start of the season well because of an injury. We should have made a good pre-season week [together]but we couldn’t because of an injury too. I’m just a little sad for him but I’m sure he’ll come back stronger and I want to wish him a speedy recovery. I’m just happy with the level I’m playing on the court. Off the track I feel really comfortable here in Australia. I think it’s pretty good. Physically I feel good so coming into the second week of a Grand Slam it’s really important to feel good physically because right now the matches are even tougher. I’m just ready. I think I do good things off the court as well. I’m excited to play my second quarter final in Australia and hopefully go further this year. Alcaraz on his win.

Djokovic dominates Lehecka

Novak Djokovic produced another top-box performance at Rod Laver Arena on Sunday to set up a highly-anticipated quarter-final clash with Carlos Alcaraz.

The Serbian cruised past 24th seed Jiri Lehecka 6-3, 6-4, 7-6(4), securing a victory in two hours and 39 minutes that equaled Roger Federer’s record 15 men’s singles finals at Melbourne Park.

Djokovic displayed his baseline dominance for the second match in a row, overpowering the Czech, who many thought would provide a stiff challenge given Novak’s early performances against Basavareddy and Faria.

But against Machac and now Lehecka, two Czech players with top-10 aspirations, he basically schooled them, committing just 21 unforced errors and never really looking troubled.

Djokovic can now look forward to his Grand Slam meeting with Alcaraz on a hard court. Novak leads his Head2Head 4-3 and won the last one at the Paris Olympics.

Other matches in the 4th round

Alexander Zverev dropped his first set of the tournament but quickly recovered to defeat Ugo Humbert 6-1, 2-6, 6-3, 6-2.

The Frenchman is a streaky player who can take the racket out of anyone’s hands, and he did so in set two to even things up.

However, Zverev, who has an impeccable record against left-handers, tapped and dropped just one point behind his first serve in sets 3 and 4. I also thought he hit his forehand convincingly, which is what he needs to do if he is to go . to win the tournament.

World No. 2 will next face Tommy Paul, who dominated Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 in just 87 minutes.

Like Draper, Davidovich Fokina has spent some time on the court in the first week, fighting back from two sets down in his previous rounds, so he was quite limping against the 12th seed.

Australian Open Day 9 round of 16 matches