Kerber beats Azarenka to advance to Australian Open semis

The former world number one has struggled with injuries the past year, but has been on fire at the Australian Open.

“That was the whole time until the last point in my mind”.

From the start, the Australian Open has been overshadowed by media reports alleging tennis authorities had failed to thoroughly investigate suspicion of match-fixing.

Konta is the first British woman since Jo Durie at Wimbledon in 1984 to reach a major semifinal. “And it’s just, with the Davis Cup win … let’s celebrate”. After three wins in qualifying and a victory over No. 2-seed Simona Halep, Zhang said she was happy to make it as far as she did and credited Konta for her performance on Wednesday.

“It’s pretty good for us to have people competing in nearly all of the competitions”, Murray told reporters.

Angelique Kerber had never beaten Victoria Azarenka in six career meetings dating back to 2012, but the No. 7-seed played an aggressive match in the quarterfinals in Melbourne on Wednesday to defeated the two-time Australian Open champion 6-3, 7-5. But the Scotsman moved out to a 4-1 lead in the third set, during which there was a brief break when the roof on Rod Laver Arena was closed because of an approaching thunderstorm.

Two men’s quarterfinals were scheduled for later Wednesday – No. 2 Andy Murray played David Ferrer and Gael Monfils faced Milos Raonic.

It’s the first time since 1977 that two British players have reached the singles semifinals of a major.

The The 27-year-old Zhang entered the Australian Open with a 0-14 record in Grand Slam matches.

Kerber kept up her early attack with several scorching forehand return winners. She was a little brittle.

Kerber dug out of a tough service game for 5-3 by delivering several pinpoint aces along with firing bullets from her squatting backhand drives. “She keeps calm, she keeps confident”.

She is a fine example of tennis’ global nature, holding Australian, Hungarian and British passports. Kerber was clutch on the big points, not just saving the set points in the second, but also denying five of eight break points she faced in the match.

A tired Zhang wasn’t overly displeased at losing. “She had some great wins here, beat a lot of seeded players”, Murray said. Ranked No. 133, she was 0-14 in Grand Slams before this run and was even considering retirement before the tournament.

An Azarenka-Serena Williams final was a popular pick among tournament prognosticators.

For “Down Under”, Victoria Azarenka looks to be rounding back into form.

But she was powerless to save the third when Konta hammered a shot into an obliging net-cord that gave the Chinese no chance.

He beat Federer in the Wimbledon and U.S. Open finals past year, but Federer was back contending for titles.

Kerber is the first German into the last four at the Australian Open since Anke Huber in 1998. Thus maybe Konta shouldn’t be discounted.

“In my heart I feel like I’ve won this tournament because I’ve won seven matches”, Zhang said.

Azarenka disagreed with that assessment. She broke Kerber right off the bat, consolidated, then held through until breaking again to go up 5-2.

“I want to congratulate Annika first; she played an fantastic two weeks and she got to the fourth round, so well done to her!” Kerber hit 31 winners to only 16 unforced errors throughout the match, playing very aggressive tennis throughout.

“I think that’s what she did today”.

“For sure I will not be thinking about this”.

Kerber is also beefing up her serve, mixing up a slice with more oomph. Now Kerber faces Konta for a spot in the final. Kerber’s execution was ideal. Both semifinals will be played Thursday, with the final on Saturday.

Apart from the psychological trauma, his post-match routine was altered.

In men’s doubles, Vancouver’s Vasek Pospisil and American partner Jack Sock lost their quarter-final match to Spain’s Marcel Granollers and Uruguay’s Pablo Cuevas in three sets.