Kerber beats Azarenka to advance to semifinals

This time past year Konta was ranked 147 and fell in qualifying for Melbourne Park, but she has since risen 100 places, crediting her transformation with a new mental attitude.

Both semifinals will be played Thursday, with the final on Saturday.

Four times he has gone on to the final in Melbourne and lost but while there were periods where Murray struggled for fluency against Ferrer, he also produced some of his best tennis when it really mattered.

Raonic cruised to the first two sets, then watched as Wawrinka attempted to come back from two sets down for the seventh time in his career. “It’s tough in those situations”, Murray said. That’s where I grew up essentially.

“This is why we play, to get the chance to play in front of such a wonderful crowd”.

Konta became the first British female to reach the last eight of a grand slam since 1984 after she edged an enthralling contest against Ekaterina Makarova 4-6 6-4 8-6. But Murray “marmalised the world number 67 with the biggest serve in the game so completely that he left the very clear impression he is in great shape to reach his fifth final here”. Kerber beat fellow German Annika Beck in straight sets in the preceding match on Rod Laver Arena. Konta saved this with a forehand victor, before eventually managing to hold.

Those were the lessons of another spectacular result for Johanna Konta, who dealt so efficiently with Chinese qualifier Shuai Zhang that her first grand-slam quarter-final was wrapped up in 83 minutes.

Those accomplishments lifted the spirits of a nation of around 1.3 billion people seeking an heir apparent to China’s first and only grand slam singles champion, Li Na – who followed her 2011 French Open success by winning the 2014 Australian Open.

Johanna Konta is growing in confidence with each win as she bids to be the first British woman to reach a Slam semi-final since 1983.

Zhang admitted she ran out of puff against Konta, saying her three-set win over Madison Keys in the earlier hours of Australia Day on Tuesday morning hindered her performance.

“She definitely didn’t make it easy for me today”, Konta said of Zhang.

“I ran down every ball and kept fighting for every point and fortunately managed to capitalise on some opportunities and close it out on the end”.

“When I was a little girl I dreamt of winning grand slams and being number one in the world”.

The 24-year-old Reid, who is ranked No. 4 in the world, says “I’m absolutely thrilled to get through – he’s a legend of our game”. “They’ve been staying up at all times”. Kerber had never previously beaten her Belarusian opponent in six previous meetings. Zhang has racked up 41 winners in her last two matches and has had 32 or less unforced errors in all four of her matches.

Having blinked first in the opening set she levelled to force a decider and regained her composure after the Russian took a lengthy medical time-out one game after a 10-minute bathroom break.

Her coach Liu Shuo told Reuters the duo and some friends bought a lottery ticket for a jackpot that was offering $15 million on the eve of the first-round match.

It could have been settled sooner had Konta not been broken when serving for the match at 5-4 but she held her nerve at the second time of asking before flinging her racket into the air in celebration.