Williams within 1 win of 7th Australian Open title

Not if Williams maintains the form she reached on Thursday in swatting aside the world No. 4 in straight sets.

The grunts were getting louder and with the match in the balance at 4-4, two crashing forehand winners, one from each player, were greeted with screeches of celebration.

“Unbelievable serve. Everything, she was going for it. I couldn’t do much”.

The defending champion is looking for a 70th career title this week as well as looking to equal Steffi Graf’s ‘Open Era’ record for the most Grand Slam singles titles won.

Williams has won every semifinal she’s contested at the Australian Open, and gone on to win the title each time.

“I have nothing to lose and it does not matter who I play”.

Quarterfinals matches on Wednesday in Melbourne will be (7) Angelique Kerber vs. (14) Victoria Azarenka, and the all-unseeded Johanna Konta of Britain vs. China’s Shuai Zhang.

Williams, who only lost three matches in 56 last season, called the trainer out at the changeover, apparently feeling unwell, but soldiered on and took control with an early break in the second set. Against Serena, as we all know, the return is one of her great strengths.

Sharapova is “an incredibly intense, focused player who was No. 1 and has won so many Grand Slams for a reason”.

The last time Sharapova beat Williams was in 2004 when she won the Wimbledon title.

“I need to get a good rest and hopefully I will be able to play my best tennis otherwise I’ll be in big trouble for sure”, Radwanska said, reports the Australian Open’s official website.

“Playing someone like that you have to play with fire and intensity”.

It proved to be vital as she came through a titanic 10th game with a volley on her fourth set point, finally winning the set after a brutal 55 minutes. “Plus, when I play her, I know automatically I have to step up my game”, she said.

The first set of the semifinals was over in 20 minutes, with Williams hitting 18 winners and Radwanska, in her fifth major semifinal, registering one – in the fourth game. “I reach the final for the first time”, Kerber said. Despite her momentous win against Sharapova again, she has nothing but good things to say about her opponent. “At the start of the second set I wanted to play the way I have been doing to get to the quarter-finals”. “I was just standing there kind of watching her playing”.

She crushed long-time rival Maria Sharapova in the quarter-finals and dished out the same treatment to Radwanska, halting her 13-match win streak in emphatic fashion.

Jamie Murray and Brazil’s Bruno Soares advanced to the doubles final with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Adrian Mannarino and Lucas Pouille and will next meet Canadian Daniel Nestor and Radek Stepanek, who beat Pablo Cuevas and Marcel Granollers 7-6 (11), 6-4.

‘BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD’ On a scorching hot day, the sluggish 34-year-old, the oldest world number one in WTA history, was slow to get going against Sharapova.