Serena Williams beats Sharapova, reaches Aussie Open semis

Six-time champion Serena Williams has again stamped her authority over Maria Sharapova, claiming the honours in their Australian Open quarterfinal on Tuesday, 6-4 6-1.

Sixth-seeded Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic also made it through to the quarterfinals with a hard-fought 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 victory over 24th-seeded Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain.

Defending champion Serena Williams takes a 17-match winning streak into her last-eight encounter with Maria Sharapova that is a rematch of last year’s final at Melbourne Park.

Djokovic, a five-time Australian Open champion, survived 100 unforced errors in the five-set match against Simon to reach the quaterfinals at Melbourne Park for the ninth straight time.

“It was super intense”.

When 28-year-old Sharapova steps on the court, she will be desperate to avenge last year’s final loss to Williams.

“When you’re playing someone who’s so great, you have to come out with a lot of fire and intensity”, she added. Sharapova did dole out 21 aces and will try to use that strong serve to keep Williams off balance.

“She played quite explosive”, Sharapova said. Her second ace brought it back to deuce before she held with an off-forehand victor for 4-4.

Williams then followed up with wins over Su-Wei Hsieh 6-1, 6-2 in the second round, Daria Kasatkina 6-1, 6-2 in the third and Margarita Gasparyan 6-2, 6-1 most recently.

She rolled to a 5-0 lead in the second set before Sharapova held serve.

Sharapova broke early for a 2-0 lead, but Williams hit back to level at 2-2.

The Russian had opportunities, most notably with two break points at the end of the first set, but Williams delivered at the decisive moment and it was one-way traffic thereafter. “I’m very happy I was able to play this way”. Serena has not had any of those tense, early round matches that lasted three sets – the ones that plagued her on a regular basis previous year. “I know her style, you have to run a lot…” the Spanish player said. She has everything for it. But I am a professional.

“In this situation, I don’t have anything to lose because I’m just here”, Williams said.

Of Williams’ 21 grand slams, six of them have come at the Australian Open as she prepares to meet Polish fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska in the final four. Williams has won each of their last 18 matches.

“So after the first set, I knew I just wanted to start playing the way I had been, which got me to the quarter-finals”. “I think this will be a time to just get myself ready for a long year”. Zhang will play Johanna Konta, who had a 4-6, 6-4, 8-6 win over 2015 semifinalist Ekaterina Makarova and became the first British woman since Jo Durie in 1983 to advance to the quarterfinals in Australia.

“The good thing about Grand Slams is that you have a day off in between, which gives you enough time”, Djokovic said in a press conference. “So I think it will be a long match and it will be a good match to see where I am”.