The action from Round 4 of the Men’s Singles Draw over Sunday (Day #7) & Monday (Day #8) has seen the finals draw crystallise. Out of the 8 matches played in Round 4, my success rate in predicting winners is 5 with two matches live in progress for the third quarter to decide that quarter final line-up…

1st Quarter Final

Nadal vs Cilic was according to my original prediction. I expect Nadal to push through in a competitive four-set match.

2nd Quarter Final

My only accurate prediction was to pick Grigor Dimitrov who defeated local Nick Krygios instead of Jo-Wilfred Tsonga as I had originally predicted. Dimitrov’s opponent was hard to pick and I had backed Andreas Seppi instead of Kyle Edmund. I expect Grigor to continue his success and face Nadal in their semi-final half of the draw.

3rd Quarter Final

This quarter of the draw was the last to be finalised, given the two Round 4 matches to decide the quarter final line-up have been played out on the evening of Day 8. Around 9pm the first contender was decided in the five-set match where Tennis Sandgren prevailed over fifth-seed Dominic Thiem. The last quarter-finalist could very well be this 21-year-old Korean Hyeon Chung who has stretched and tested former World No 1 Novak Djokovic. Three tie-breakers saw the winds blow in favour of Hyeon with Novak knocked out. With Novak out, my quarter-final prediction was just completely off… congrats to the young Korean.

4th Quarter Final

 

Although this part of the draw does have quite a few inaccurate predictions, my Round 4 predictions did eventually prove correct in that it will be Tomas Berdych facing the 2017 defending champion Roger Federer. Roger has been a consistent and stable presence and it is truly amazing that he continues to reign along with Nada as Top 1 and 2 seeds after the “holiday” period of the last few years where Novak and Andy displaced them. It has been almost a decade since the days of dominance by Federer and Nadal, and it is like 2017-2018 is a throwback to those times. Could Berdych upset Federer in their quarter final? Perhaps. The performance of Novak in his latest Round 4 match does not help to increase his chances of success against Federer, which is why my finals predictions will be adjusted.

Finals Adjustments

In light of the performance shown by Djokovic, it is unfortunate that I revise my predictions away from him. My justification is that Djokovic is indeed not going to find any finals matches any easier and could very well succumb to Tennys Sandgren or more likely the defending champion in Roger Federer, if not the in-form Rafael Nadal in a hypothetical final. Sorry Novak! Had Djokovic been his usual self, and not just returning from injury, my original prediction of his 2018 championship would have made more sense. However, when taking into consideration the reality of his continued recovery, I have to agree with the majority of the media and analysts who have placed Federer with the best odds of winning the Australian Open 2018 tournament.