Australian Open 2022: Round of 16: Unique stats and records

The second week of the 2022 Australian Open came to a close, with the Round of 16 taking place over the weekend on Saturday and Sunday. On the men's side of the draw, there have been a few major upsets, with one of the top four seeds being knocked out in the Round of 16. The women’s singles also saw few surprises, leaving everyone excited for the upcoming rounds.

Today we take a look at a few unique stats and records that created history over this round of 16 of the Australian Open 2022.

12-0

The French unorthodox Gael Monfils who is having a tremendous tournament is yet to drop a set in the tournament and is on a 12-set win streak. Yes, the french has been making easy work of his opponents. However, can he continue that form against the in-form 7th seeded Italian Matteo Berrettini?

Striking in the 64th attempt

The 32-year old Alize Cornet after a record attempt of 63 times managed to break through to her first-ever Grandslam quarter-finals. Her spirited effort against the 14th seeded Simona Halep marked a shocking exit for the Romanian. The previous record was held by Thailand’s Tamarine Tanasugarn, who took 44 attempts to make it to her maiden quarter-finals of a Grandslam (Wimbledon 2008).

Three away from glory

The top-seeded Rafael Nadal who is in search of his 21st Grandslam and becoming the first male player to ever achieve that feat after his 3-0 win over the French Adrian Mannarino ensured that he is still on track to claim the record. The 35-year old is now just three wins away from achieving the incredible milestone and stamping his name in the record books for the years to come.

Osaka’s streak comes to an end

Naomi Osaka, who was the hot favorite to make it big in the tournament was completely outplayed by the American underdog Amanda Anisimova. Osaka’s incredible record of 15 straight wins in Melbourne Park was put to bed and her wait for the 5th Grand Slam continues.

Shapovalov-Aliassime duo

Denis Shapovalov reached his maiden Australian Open quarter-final, while Felix Auger-Aliassime, his fellow friend and countryman, joined him in the final eight. It's the first time two Canadians have achieved this feat in the same year and It's the second time they've done it in the last three Grand Slam championships.

Hero and the Villian

The French-born American Maxime Cressy tops the leaderboard of the most aces in this tournament with 95 aces to his name and interestingly with 54 double faults, he stands 1st in the list of players with most double faults in the latest edition. The magnitude of Cressy's 54 double faults is demonstrated by the fact that the second-place finisher, Benoit Paire, is 23 double faults behind him.

The toughest

One would think that the Round of 16 would have been a closely fought one. However, this edition of the Australian Open saw just one match that went till the end. It was the last match of the R16 that took place between Taylor Fritz and Stefanos Tsitsipas. The round witnessed five three straight-set wins, does this mean that we will witness more dominating performances in the Quarterfinals?

Nadal was made to sweat it out 

In an extraordinary first-set tiebreak at the Australian Open, Rafael Nadal finally put away an inspired Adrian Mannarino after a long wait. The 2009 winner required seven set points and had to save four of his own to win an hour-and-22-minute first set 7-6(14), with the protracted tiebreak accounting for 28 of those minutes.

With the latter stages of the competitions approaching, high stakes remain for the players remaining in the competition. Playing with their hearts on their sleeves, we are in for some exciting matches ahead. Let us know your comments on who do you think is going to win this year’s French Open and which stat impressed you the most.