Australian Open: Serena Williams overcomes Agnieszka Radwanska to move into final

The six-time Australian Open champion, Serena Williams attacked Maria Sharapova’s strength with full force to beat her 6-4, 6-1 in the quarterfinals on Tuesday.

Serena Williams provided another reminder of her dominance in women’s tennis with a 6-0, 6-4 win in the Australian Open semifinals against Agnieszka Radwanska, who is soon to move to the No. 3 ranking.

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

Radwanska, who had been bidding to reach her second grand slam final after Wimbledon in 2012, also heavily lost her only other semi-final appearance at Melbourne Park when she was beaten 6-1 6-2 by Dominika Cibulkova in 2014.

“Physically I’m feeling a lot better, mentally I needed that break after the US Open and now I just feel so good, it’s great, I didn’t think I’d do so well so fast”.

“Tomas has caused me a lot of problems over the years, but it’s been a pleasure playing against him, he’s the type of player who makes you better”.

The Russian showed character to storm back from 0-40 down to hold serve for 4-4 and was all over Williams’s serve in the next game, the American yelling “C’mon!” on successive points as she finally held.

Sharapova has not only failed to beat Williams in recent years she has struggled even to stretch her, winning only three sets during the 18-match losing streak.

Serena Williams had more trouble with food poisoning than Maria Sharapova before reaching the semi-finals of the Australian Open.

The German player had won the first set 6-3 and rallied to win the final five games of the second set to close out the match.

“I don’t think anyone can really play on that level”, Radwanska said. “It’s been a stressful few days, but I’ll try to rest up the next few days to get ready for the next one”. I don’t know. It’s something about her game.

Serena Williams was impeccable in her straight sets demolition of Agnieszka Radwanska.

“To be honest, when I woke up I felt quite drained, quite exhausted”, he said.

Williams, now World No.1, wasted no time in getting down to business, notching up 18 aces in the first set, ultimately not dropping a single game in the opening session.

“You know, I think at five-all maybe the mentality of her confidence would have changed a little bit”.

“I just saw that”, Kerber said in her post-match press conference.

“She started unbelievable, with such a power and speed”, Radwanska said.

She set her stall out in the very first point as she thundered back Radwanska’s first serve before two more booming returns sealed an early break.

And yet by playing below her best in a quarter-final against Sharapova, Williams delivered a timely reminder of her talent ahead of Saturday’s decider.