Kerber thwarts Azarenka comeback to reach semi-finals

Victoria Azarenka of Belarus celebrates after defeating Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic during their fourth round match at the Australian Open tennis championships in Melbourne, Australia, Monday, Jan. 25, 2016.

No. 4 Agnieszka Radwanksa rallied from 5-2 down in the third set to win 6-7 (6), 6-1, 7-5 against Anna-Lena Friedsam, who finished the last two games hobbling and in tears, and also conceded a point penalty on her last serve, after taking a medical timeout for what appeared to be cramps. She was previously 0-6 up against the Belarusian player.

Azarenka would already be up a break in the first set, and is able to use her serve to help her set up her heavy groundstrokes to control this point, and gets the passing shot past the Czech en route to a 6-2 win in the opening frame.

Her reward is a clash with Konta, whose fairytale main-draw debut tournament continued when she outclassed giant-killing Chinese qualifier Zhang Shuai 6-4, 6-1.

“I think it’s Cam’s dream, you know, and Peyton, you know, so deep in his career it’s definitely a dream again”. Strycova, who beat third-ranked Garbine Muguruza in the third round, took six games off Azarenka and walked off the court commenting how differently Azarenka is playing this season. The German won 56% of second serve points, a big reason for her victory.

Kerber has a huge task ahead of her with Azarenka in fighting form having not dropped a single set all year.

“The result of Brisbane or whatever in the past, it doesn’t really matter to me”.

“Yes!” she said. “I was so nervous the whole morning”.

“It’s not just about a confidence”, Raonic said of his successful strategy, “it’s about an understanding of what I need to do”. Azarenka will enter her quarterfinal against Angelique Kerber with a winning 6-0 head-to-head record, the latest of those wins coming in the recent Brisbane final.

The British world number two downed the 16th-seeded Tomic 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (7/4) in two hours, 30 minutes to end home interest in the competition set up a last-eight match with Spanish eighth seed David Ferrer.

Germany’s Angelique Kerber finally solved the riddle that was for her Victoria Azarenka to reach her first ever Australian Open semifinal.

To get the trophy, Azarenka first needs to beat Kerber in Wednesday’s quarterfinal – an opponent she has played six times and never lost.

After being down match point in her first-round encounter against Japan’s Misaki Doi, Kerber has built steadily through the tournament. “I had to learn the hard way, because otherwise I wouldn’t stop, I would just keep going and keep going”. “I was happy I won the first set and tried to really be aggressive in the first few games in the second set”.

The quarter-finals are all being played on Rod Laver Arena, and start at 11am (Midnight, GMT).

Kerber, 29, is a hard-hitting left-hander and Top 10 regular trying to establish herself as a Grand Slam final-worthy competitor.

Asked what aspects of her game she wanted to work on, Azarenka said: “Everything”. “If I can wait for long time, eight years, I can one time win a lot of matches at a Grand Slam”. I want to be a better player overall – I want to be better physically; I want to play better; I want to be stronger.

Raonic’s win was the biggest upset of the day – he’d lost all four previous matches against No. 4-ranked Wawrinka.