Serena maintains hold over Sharapova to reach semi-finals
Both superstars advanced in straight sets to create a highly intriguing battle for a place in the final at the season’s first major.
An agitated Andy Murray, meanwhile, yelled and berated himself repeatedly and had trouble dealing with Bernard Tomic’s unusual style before advancing to the quarterfinals with a scrappy 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (4) win late on Monday.
Champion Novak Djokovic did not bother with a practice hit before his showdown with Kei Nishikori and his “less is more” approach paid off with an easy 6-3 6-2 6-4 win on Tuesday to set up a blockbuster Australian Open semi-final with Roger Federer. He hasn’t gone past the semifinals here since winning the title in 2010.
“It was super intense”, said Williams, according to the BBC.
Sharapova is “an incredibly intense, focused player who was number one and has won so many Grand Slams for a reason”.
Williams has played Radwanska played eight times since 2008, with the 34-year-old world number one winning the lot.
The Pole added that the experience she gained from making the Wimbledon final in 2012 and three other major semis would be crucial. She was also returning well as the Russian’s own serve let her down, with seven double faults.
That’s Williams’s 18th straight victory over Sharapova, dating back to 2004.
“She played quite explosive”, Sharapova said.
But the aggressive returns finally helped Williams convert on her fourth set point, following a heavy ground stroke to the net and putting away a volley.
Her downfall started in an epic semi-final at the 2005 Australian Open, with the American scraping home in a 2-6, 7-5, 8-6 thriller.
Although Williams was taking medical treatments between sets and in the second half, she didn’t let it affect her performance in any way. I don’t know. It’s something about her game.
While her record against Williams is not yet on the scale of Sharapova, it is still dismal.
When she needed it most, however, facing four set points in the crucial 10th game of the match, her serve failed her and she ceded the opening stanza 6-4.
“He always makes you play your best”.
She further dismissed the idea that this might be her 16th and final appearance at the year’s first grand slam, she said: “Hopefully not, unless you know something I don’t”.
When it comes to the men’s match, Federer is said to have taken a lot of heat from Djokovic ever since Djokovic beat him out in rankings.
After his long five-setter against Gilles Simon, when he made a startling 100 unforced errors, Djokovic cut that down 27 in a faster-paced, shorter-rally encounter against Nishikori, a U.S. Open finalist in 2014. “At the start of the second set I wanted to play the way I have been doing to get to the quarter-finals”.
“Right now I have nothing to lose”, Radwanska said.
“I have to be satisfied, I reached (the) semifinals. This is one of the few stadiums where I feel so welcome”. Comparing to the fourth-round match, this was much better.