bwin Sportsblog - Tennis - Melbourne latest

The Australian Open has reached the last 16 stage and this is the part of the tournament that really starts to hot up. Most of the lower ranked players have been eliminated and the best players start coming head to head with each other. It is always very interesting to see who has been playing well and all of the major favourites in the mens event have seemingly had trouble free passages so far.

Rafael Nadal beat Lukas Lacko of Slovakia 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 with the type of display that typifies the top seeds at this years event. Andy Murray has also been showing improved form after his dodgy first round match when he beat Michael Llodra of France 6-4, 6-2, 6-0. Another player who has been also doing well is Novak Djokovic who has been coming under the radar of late after his injuries and nobody has been talking about him for a while.

That could be a good thing for him in this event but you can make a case for any of the top four at the moment and that makes for a very exciting event. We will really see the depth of the work done by Ivan Lendl who is working with Andy Murray this year although it all may come too quick for this tournament. But Lendl was as tough as they come mentally and one hopes that he will be able to pass some of the on the Scotsman.