Serena Williams dispenses with Maria Sharapova in Australian Open quarters

The American 21-time grand slam champion last lost to Sharapova in 2004 and she maintained that extraordinary record with a 6-4 6-1 victory on Rod Laver Arena on a warm Tuesday.

Williams said she couldn’t explain her 11-year domination of Sharapova – she has won 19 of their 21 meetings overall – except to say she rises to the big challenges. Sharapova is “an incredibly intense, focused player who was No. 1 and has won so many Grand Slams for a reason”.

“I think if you’re serving maybe 180[km/h] against somebody else compared to Serena, that’s an ace, Against Serena, as we all know, the return is one of her great strengths”, she said.

Roger Federer advanced to his 39th Grand Slam semifinal, beating Tomas Berdych 7-6 (4), 6-2, 6-4.

Frustrated Maria Sharapova admitted Tuesday she needs to go back to the drawing board to figure out how to break her 12-year jinx against Serena Williams after crashing to an 18th straight defeat.

Serena Williams of the USA (R) shakes hands with Russia’s Maria Sharapova after winning their women’s singles match on day nine of the 2016 Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne on January 26, 2016.

The defending champion, seeded number one and chasing a 22nd Grand Slam title, saw off fifth seed Sharapova 6-4 6-1 at Melbourne Park.

Williams has won every semifinal she’s contested at the Australian Open, and gone on to win the title each time.

It’s the second semi-final Radwanska’s made at Melbourne Park, and she said it wasn’t as easy as the scoreline would suggest.

But after falling into a 2-0 hole, Williams reeled off six of the next eight games to take the early advantage.

Williams broke for a second time to take the first set in 55 minutes but only after the top seed had mucked up three set points, twice thundering returns into the net.

When she needed it most, however, facing four set points in the crucial 10th game of the match, her serve failed her and she ceded the opening stanza 6-4.

It proved to be vital as she came through a titanic 10th game with a volley on her fourth set point, finally winning the set after a brutal 55 minutes.

“She’s at a different level”, Sharapova said. She makes you work.

Williams has an 8-0 record against her semi-final opponent Agnieszka Radwanska, who as the fourth seed is the highest ranked challenger remaining in the draw.

The grunts were getting louder and with the match in the balance at 4-4, two crashing forehand winners, one from each player, were greeted with screeches of celebration.

“Tomas has caused me a lot of problems over the years”, said Federer, who improved to 16-6 against Berdych. Despite remaining an invincible force, the driven American said she had learned to relax and was enjoying her tennis greatly now that the clock was ticking on her career. It’s the 18th consecutive victory for Williams over Sharapova.

“I’ve been playing this week aggressive and I didn’t start that way so after the first set I just wanted to play the way that got me to the quarter finals”. “But I didn’t start like that so I chose to play the way that got me to the quarter-finals”.