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Australian Open 2019: Ranking the eight men and women semi-finalists by performance so far

Only eight singles players remain at the Australian Open - Telegraph
Only eight singles players remain at the Australian Open - Telegraph

8. Lucas Pouille

A terrific effort by Pouille to get this far, but the lack of major scalp counts against him. Borna Coric and Milos Raonic were great wins, but not on the same level shock-wise as knocking out Serena Williams, Angelique Kerber or Roger Federer.

Pouille has also dropped five sets in total - no remaining player has lost more - including a second-round five-setter against world No. 149 Alexei Popyrin.

Odds of 33/1 to win a four-horse race illustrate how much of an outsider Pouille is to be clutching the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup on Sunday.

7. Naomi Osaka

A little harsh, perhaps, but these are the hypothetical standards we're dealing with. Osaka has largely been untroubled but has twice had to battle back from losing the first set.

Against Hsieh Su-wei in the third round she looked down and out when trailing a set and a break, and it was a similar story against Anastasija Sevastova in the following match.

Osaka gains credit for fighting back in both of those matches, but is deducted imaginary points for finding herself in those positions in the first place.

Czech Republic's Karolina Pliskova reacts after a point against Serena Williams of the US during their women's singles quarter-final match on day ten of the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne on January 23, 2019 - Credit: AFP
Karolina Pliskova scored a famous win over Serena Williams on Wednesday Credit: AFP

6. Karolina Pliskova

But what about her win over Serena, I hear you cry? Well, first of all, Williams' ankle injury was a significant mitigating factor, and secondly Pliskova has had a couple of scratchy performances that lose her marks.

Both Camila Giorgi and Madison Brengle took sets off Pliskova, and it looked like she was heading for a third-set thrashing against Williams until the late drama.

Caveat: Pliskova has still played really well. Look at what she's up against here, though.

5. Novak Djokovic

This may seem odd for a player who has dropped just two sets en route to the semi-finals, but Djokovic has been a fair way short of his best.

Of course none of this matters to Djokovic, who like peak Jose Mourinho's Chelsea will always find a way to win no matter how well he is playing. Djokovic also shares with that team a habit of peaking for when it really matters.

So irrespective of dodgy moments against Denis Shapovalov and Daniil Medvedev, expect Djokovic to come to life in the next couple of matches.

Serbia's Novak Djokovic gives back his towel during the men's singles match against Russia's Daniil Medvedev on day eight of the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne on January 21, 2019 - Credit: AFP
Novak Djokovic has been solid if unspectacular thus far Credit: AFP

4. Danielle Collins

Dumping out seeds Julia Goerges and Caroline Garcia was impressive enough, but Collins' 6-0, 6-2 demolition of No. 2 seed and former champion Kerber made even Stefanos Tsitsipas's defeat of Roger (more on that later) look like a mild surprise. Losing just two games to a player of Kerber's pedigree is just silly.

Collins relishes the pugilistic element of tennis, and has enjoyed bloodying the noses of her better-known opponents. She also managed the impressive feat of backing up that showstopping win against Kerber by grinding out a victory over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the next round.

3. Stefanos Tsitsipas

He may have dropped a set in all five of his matches, but the thrill and wider significance of his victory over Federer catapult Tsitsipas to a place on the podium.

Federer, it should be pointed out, did not play a particularly bad match. Tsitsipas was just too good, and mentally rock solid - witness the 12 out of 12 break points he saved.

Like Collins, Tsitsipas also managed the arguably more impressive feat of recovering emotionally and physically from toppling Federer by taking out Roberto Bautista Agut on Friday. After the thrill of beating Federer, playing the metronomic Bobby Bautista was the tennis equivalent of double maths after scoring a hat-trick in the playground at lunch.

2. Petra Kvitova

No sets dropped, home favourite squashed, just over an hour spent on court per match - Kvitova is powering her way to a third grand-slam title.

Against Ashleigh Barty in the quarter-final, the winners were flowing off Kvitova's racket - 25 in total - and the serve was nigh-on unreturnable. If she keeps playing this way, good luck to the rest of the field.

1. Rafael Nadal

15 sets played, 15 sets won. Nadal has not even nearly been pushed, and swatted aside two of the tour's bright young things in Alex de Minaur and Frances Tiafoe with contemptuous ease.

With the forehand firing and a remodelled serve winning him more cheap points than ever before, Nadal has been the pick of the bunch so far.