Kerber, Konta win on another distracting day in Melbourne

It is the first time in 39 years that Britain has boasted a semi-finalist in both the men and women’s singles at a grand slam, after Sue Barker and John Lloyd achieved the feat at the Australian Open in 1977. Konta, who will be playing in her first major semi, had a 6-4, 6-1 win over Chinese qualifier Zhang Shuai.

The 26-year-old, however, reproduced some of the tennis that had made her world number one over the last three weeks in Australia, with many tipping her as a potential victor of the year’s opening grand slam.

“I felt I did quite a good job of removing any sort of occasion from the match”, said Konta, the first British woman since Jo Durie at the US Open to make the last four of a Grand Slam.

Konta on Thursday tangles with another unexpected player, Angelique Kerber, who pulled off the biggest upset of the tournament since Rafael Nadal exited in the first round by ousting the seemingly impregnable Victoria Azarenka 6-3 7-5.

Andy Murray is through to his sixth Australian Open semi-final after coming through a gruelling quarter-final clash with David Ferrer.

Kerber is the first German into the last four at the Australian Open since Anke Huber in 1998.

Five-time champion Djokovic, after beating No. 7 Kei Nishikori 6-3, 6-2, 6-4, still has a daunting semifinal match against Roger Federer, who has won four of his 17 Grand Slam titles in Australia.

“I will just be trying to focus on doing the same stuff I’m doing before every match, focusing on my game”, Kerber said, looking ahead to the semi-final tomorrow. “It will be a tough match, hes obviously played some great ones here, ” Murray said.

World number one Williams plays fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska in the other semi-final. Kerber was more efficient, with 31 winners against 16 unforced errors.

“If you just play defense against good players it’s not enough”, Azarenka’s affable coach, Torben Beltz, told a pair of reporters. “It was pretty physical and I held up pretty good”. The only previous major meeting was Azarenka’s 7-5, 2-6, 6-4 win at last year’s 2015 US Open, a contest that went 2 hours, 52 minutes. “Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t change it, but… also I have a lot of respect for her as player”.

She said: “I think that’s very much a circumstantial thing outside of the match that I’m playing”. Kerber broke Azarenka’s serve to end the match, beating the Belarussian for the first time in seven career matches.

“That’s why I started this sport, that’s why I’m still in this sport”.

Murray said it was a special time for British tennis, after he also led his country to Davis Cup glory against Belgium in November – the first time they have won the teams tournament since 1936.

She stormed to the Brisbane title, dispatching Kerber in the final, by dropping just 17 games over five matches.

“Actually I am a tri-citizen”.

However, he and Brazilian will be on opposite sides of the net when they meet later today (January 27th) as Murray partners Slovenian Katarina Srebotnik and Soares plays with Russian Elena Vesnina. That was before she went on a remarkable run to the fourth round of the US Open, which saw her ranking catapult from No. 150 to inside the top 50.

Wade believes the seventh seed is fallible, and hopes to see Konta in Saturday’s final.