Serena Williams into Australian Open QFs

Melbourne, Feb 14 (AP): Serena Williams tumbled to the ground, her heavily taped right ankle turning, her body contorting, her racket flying.
This was early in the second set of a competitive-as-can-be matchup in the Australian Open’s fourth round against a younger version of herself stinging serves, huge groundstroke cuts, a fierce streak and during a stretch Sunday (Saturday night EST) when things seemed to be slipping away. Williams quickly put up a hand to indicate she was OK, retied the laces of her right shoe and, while it took her a bit to regain control, she did so, just in the nick of time. Grabbing the last two games, Williams pulled out 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 victory over No. 7 seed Aryna Sabalenka to reach the quarterfinals at Melbourne Park.
Two years ago at this tournament, Williams was on the verge of a quarterfinal win when she hurt her ankle and ended up losing.
Well, my first thought was, Not another ankle sprain in Australia.’ But I knew immediately that it wasn’t. Then I was more embarrassed than anything. I was like, Oh, my goodness.’ I don’t like falling,” Williams said. But I was fine. I mean, once I realized I didn’t twist my ankle, like at all, I was like, OK, I’m good, let me just get up.’ Williams, who wore a black T-shirt with Unstoppable Queen in capital gold letters to her news conference, moved closer to an eighth Australian Open championship and record-tying 24th Grand Slam singles title overall.
Williams now faces Simona Halep or Iga Swiatek, who were scheduled to meet Sunday night. The other quarterfinal on that half of the draw will be Naomi Osaka against unseeded 35-year-old Hsie Su-wei of Taiwan. There were two significant surprises in men’s fourth-round action.
Dominic Thiem the Australian Open runner-up and U.S. Open champion in 2020 looked physically compromised in a 6-4, 6-4, 6-0 loss to three-time major semifinalist Grigor Dimitrov. Even more unexpected: Dimitrov’s next opponent is Aslan Karatsev, a 27-year-old Russian qualifier who is ranked 114th and first player in a quarter century to reach the quarterfinals in his Grand Slam debut. Karatsev eliminated 20th-seeded Felix Auger-Aliassime 3-6, 1-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-4. Osaka barely advanced, saving two match points and grabbing the last four games to top Garbi e Muguruza 4-6, 6-4, 7-5. The third-seeded Osaka returns to the quarterfinals of a tournament she won in 2019 for one of her three major trophies. Osaka ran her winning streak to 18 matches a run that included a U.S. Open title in September.
The 71st-ranked Hsieh’s 6-4, 6-2 victory over 2019 French Open finalist Marketa Vondrousova made her the oldest woman to make her major quarterfinal debut in the professional era. This is the 38th major for Hsieh, who beat 2019 U.S. Open champion Bianca Andreescu in the second round. The secret to Hsieh’s success? I try to pretend,” she joked, “I’m only 18 years old.