MELBOURNE: The whiff of sporting upset hung around Melbourne Park on Sunday after top seeds Andy Murray and Angelique Kerber were handed stunning defeats in the Australian Open fourth round.

Britain’s Murray was bamboozled by the serve-volley game of Mischa Zverev to exit after 3½ hours on Rod Laver Arena, while fellow world number one Kerber’s title defence was ended in little more than an hour by Coco Vandeweghe.

Murray was the first top seed to depart before the quarter-finals since Lleyton Hewitt in 2003, while Germany’s reigning women’s champion was last sent packing before the second week a decade ago when Amelie Mauresmo went out in the fourth round.

Murray and Kerber were playing their first Grand Slams as top seeds and both looked all but powerless to deal with the style of game they were confronted with from across the net.

Zverev, the world number 50, rushed the net 118 times to keep one of the best defensive players in the game on the backfoot for much of the contest before holding his nerve to close out the contest 7-5, 5-7, 6-2, 6-4.

“Credit to him,” said Murray. “He came up with great, great shots and played a really, really good match. ”

The German, ranked outside the top 1,000 in the world after wrist surgery two years ago, will face Roger Federer in his maiden Grand Slam quarter-final after the Swiss master outlasted Kei Nishikori 6-7 (4-7), 6-4, 6-1, 4-6, 6-3.

Meanwhile Stan Wawrinka, who won the first of his three Grand Slam titles in Melbourne in 2014, came through 7-6 (7-2), 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-4) against Italy’s Andreas Seppi.

The formidable Swiss will play France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who came from a set down to beat British surprise package Dan Evans.

Vandeweghe had never been past the third round at the season-opening Grand Slam, and lost in the first round here last year.

But she pounded Kerber with a powerful forehand, clubbing 13 of her 30 winners from that wing, overpowering the US Open champion 6-2, 6-3 to set up a meeting with Spanish seventh seed Garbine Muguruza, who swamped Romania’s Sorana Cirstea 6-2, 6-3.

“I was trying everything, but I missed a lot and I make a lot of unforced errors,” Kerber said. “So this was not my game.”

Venus Williams, at 36 the oldest woman in the singles draw, also progressed to the last eight with a 6-3, 7-5 victory over Mona Barthel.

Her quarter-final opponent is Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who beat fellow Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-3, 6-3.

Collated results (prefix number denotes seeding):

Men’s singles:

Fourth round: 17-Roger Federer (Switzerland) bt 5-Kei Nishikori (Japan) 6-7 (4-7), 6-4, 6-1, 4-6, 6-3; 12-Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (France) bt Daniel Evans (Britain) 6-7 (4-7), 6-2, 6-4, 6-4; 4-Stanislas Wawrinka (Switzerland) bt Andreas Seppi (Italy) 7-6 (7-2), 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-4); Mischa Zverev (Germany) bt 1-Andy Murray (Britain) 7-5, 5-7, 6-2, 6-4.

Women’s singles:

Fourth round: CoCo Vandeweghe (US) bt 1-Angelique Kerber (Germany) 6-2, 6-3; 7-Garbine Muguruza Blanco (Spain) bt Sorana Cirstea (Romania) 6-2, 6-3; 13-Venus Williams (US) bt Mona Barthel (Germany) 6-3, 7-5; 24-Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (Russia) bt 8-Svetlana Kuznetsova (Russia) 6-3, 6-3.

Published in Dawn, January 23rd, 2017