Ferrer and Nishikori win five setters in Australia

There was much less drama on the men's side of the draw compared to yesterday as David Ferrer and Kei Nishikori were both pushed hard, but survived on day 4.  Ferrer managed to fend off Ryan Sweeting in a 6-7 6-2 3-6 6-2 6-3 victory.  The big factor in the stats was that Ferrer was much more consistent; he hit less winners but fewer unforced errors, in fact 36 fewer! Kei Nishikori recovered from a two set deficit to beat Matthew Ebden, 3-6 1-6 6-4 6-1 6-1.  I was particularly disappointed about this result because I had tipped Ebden in every fantasy game I play and he came so close to upsetting Nishikori.  The Japanese player will now play Julien Benneteau in the third round who beat the number 12 seed, Gilles Simon.  Victor Troicki was another seed to fall as he lost in five sets to Mikhail Kukushkin.

Gilles Simon

Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray were both comfortable winners on day four.  Djokovic beat Santiago Giraldo, 6-3 6-2 6-1 and Andy Murray beat the fabulously named, Edouard Roger-Vasselin, 6-1 6-4 6-4.  Murray served extremely well throughout the contest and will play Michael Llodra in the third round.  There were also wins for Gael Monfils, who lost the first set to Thomasz Bellucci but ultimately prevailed, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga who beat Ricardo Mello in straight sets and Janko Tipsarevic, who set up an intriguing third round clash with Richard Gasquet.

Andy Murray

I'm hoping to watch a bit more of the tennis tomorrow and over the weekend and be blogging away as usual. It's likely that I may be busy next week so will have less chance to blog! Anyway here are my men's predictions for tomorrow's matches...

Phillipp Kohlschreiber to beat Alejandro Falla in 4 sets

Juan Martin Del Potro to beat Yen-Hsun Lu in 3 sets

Alexandr Dolgopolov to beat Bernard Tomic in 5 sets

Roger Federer to beat Ivo Karlovic in 3 sets

Tomas Berdych to beat Kevin Anderson in 3 sets

Stanislas Wawrinka to beat Nicolas Almagro in 4 sets

John Isner to beat Feliciano Lopez in 5 sets

Rafael Nadal to beat Lukas Lacko in 3 sets