Nishikori ousts Tsonga in Australian Open

MELBOURNE, Jan. 23 (UPI) -- Kei Nishikori out-battled Jo-Wilfried Tsonga for a five-set win at the Australian Open Monday and advanced to his first major tournament quarterfinal.

Nishikori, seeded 24th, ousted the sixth-seeded Tsonga 2-6, 6-2, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 in 3 1/2 hours in hot conditions at Melbourne. Nishikori had been as far as the fourth round of a Grand Slam event once before -- the 2008 U.S. Open -- but never got beyond that in a major.

Nishikori had 37 winners against 30 unforced errors, a figure dwarfed by the 70 unforced errors committed by Tsonga. Nishikori fought off a pair of fifth-set break points in completing the upset.

He is the only player outside the first 11 seeds to make the men's quarterfinals.

World No. 1 and defending champion Novak Djokovic, fourth-seeded Andy Murray and No. 5 David Ferrer all advanced to the quarters Monday, with only Djokovic losing a set.

Djokovic got past Lleyton Hewitt 6-1, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 in a nearly three-hour match that concluded early Tuesday. Hewitt, the last Australian remaining in the field, won his fourth set-point chance in the third set to hand Djokovic his first set loss since the second round last year.

But Djokovic had the only break of the fourth set to end the threat.

Murray built a 6-1, 6-1, 1-0 lead before Mikhail Kukushkin retired with a hip injury. Kukushkin's two game wins Monday were both breaks but Murray won 64 percent of the points and had seven breaks against Kukushkin's serve.

Ferrer ousted 17th-seeded Richard Gasquet 6-4, 6-1, 6-1 by cashing in seven of his nine break opportunities and winning 49 percent of the points off Gasquet's serve.

Djokovic goes against Ferrer, against whom he is 6-5, in the quarterfinals. Ferrer won their most recent meeting, a round-robin match in last year's World Tour Finals. Murray was a 6-3, 6-0 winner over Nishikori in Shanghai last year, the only meeting between the two.

The other quarterfinal matches in the men's draw have No. 2-seeded Rafael Nadal going against seventh-seeded Tomas Berdych and third-ranked Roger Federer meeting No. 11 Juan Martin del Potro.