A rattled Roger Federer was given a major scare in a five-set epic at the Australian Open yesterday, but he avoided the fate of women's No. 2 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova who skidded out of the tournament.
Other casualties included women's sixth seed Anna Chakvetadze and men's seventh seed Fernando Gonzalez. Both lost just hours after the bad-tempered ousting of sixth seed Andy Roddick in the early hours of Saturday morning.
The defending champion was stretched to the limit by Janko Tipsarevic before downing the 49th ranked Serb 6-7 (5/7), 7-6 (7/1), 5-7, 6-1, 10-8 after four hours and 27 minutes.
PHOTO: EPA
It was a mighty struggle for the Swiss, who dropped sets for the first time in this year's tournament after becoming the only man since Bjorn Borg at the 1980 French Open to win a slam title without dropping a set here last year.
"What a great battle it was and it's a pity someone has to win in tennis sometimes," Federer said.
"I thought I was in great shape winning the fourth set but he served great and played some fantastic shots and in the end I tried to block out all the chances I had missed in the earlier sets," he said.
PHOTO: AFP
"He came up with some fantastic plays and what a great victory it was for me," Federer said.
The defeat of Kuznetsova by Poland's Agneiszka Radwanska was the biggest upset yet on the women's side of the draw, with three of the top 10 seeds now gone.
Three top men's seeds have fallen -- ninth seeded Briton Andy Murray, Gonzalez, and Roddick, who was dumped out by Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber.
Eighteen-year-old Radwanska, ranked 28 in the world, said she was on a mission to avenge three losses to Kuznetsova last year, and was good to her word, 6-3, 6-4.
"I played against her a few times, always losing, so I said `no more.' It's very exciting, I'm very happy," Radwanska said.
With play on outside courts cancelled due to rain without a ball being struck, the action was restricted to the Rod Laver and Vodafone Arenas, which have retractable roofs.
On Rod Laver, Chakvetadze let slip a one set lead against 27th seeded Russian Maria Kirilenko crashing 6-7 (6/8), 6-1, 6-2.
She now plays either the Slovak Republic's Daniela Hantuchova or Spain's Virginia Ruano-Pascual.
Eighth seed Venus Williams bludgeoned her way to victory in a slugfest with India's Sania Mirza to reach the last 16.
Williams went behind in the first set but blasted her way back to a 7-6 (7-0), 6-4 win over the 31st seed.
The Wimbledon champion said before the match that she expected an aggressive display from Mirza and the Indian delivered, looking like she was trying to belt the fuzz off every ball that came her way.
"She was definitely trying to dictate terms, so I just stuck with playing my game and didn't change it," Williams said.
Chile's Gonzalez was last year's finalist, losing to Federer, but failed to produce the form that took him there yesterday, slumping to Croatia's Marin Cilic, 6-2, 6-7 (4/7), 6-3, 6-1.
James Blake, seeded 12, fought back to beat France's Sebastien Grosjean 4-6, 2-6, 6-0, 7-6 (7/5), 6-2 in what the American described as his greatest ever comeback.
In other action, third seeded Serb Novak Djokovic breezed past unseeded American Sam Querrey 6-3, 6-1, 6-3 while women's fourth seed Ana Ivanovic swept into the final 16 by beating Slovenian Katarina Srebotnik 6-3, 6-4.
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