Fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska became the first woman to reach this year’s Australian Open semi-finals with victory over Carla Suarez Navarro.
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The 21-year-old German, who had never been past the second round of a grand slam before this year’s tournament, had Radwanska on the ropes when she led 5-2 in the deciding set before injury cruelly struck at 5-4.
“I’m very glad to be in the quarters”.
She said: ‘Right now I have nothing to lose.
“I was being a little girl …”
She raised hopes of a similar fightback by breaking Radwanska twice early in the second set and finally holding held serve to level it 3-3.
The third seeded Federer only managed to get onto center court just before 11pm local time, but showed no signs of fatigue in his straight sets demolition of Belgian No. 15 seed David Goffin. The downside for Navarro is the fact she’s had no less than 30 unforced errors in three of her four matches, a number that must improve if she’s going to make the deepest run of a grand slam in her career.
“It’s not acceptable, I don’t know why I did that”.
“Hopefully I can play my best tennis in the semi, otherwise I will be in big trouble”.
“I don’t know, I’m just emotional”.
I was a spoiled brat out there…
“I have so much respect for her”, said Gavrilova, who trained with Stosur ahead of the Australian Open.
The reaction is in stark contrast to that received by fellow Australian Nick Kyrgios last week; during an animated performance in his defeat to Tomas Berdych, sections of the crowd turned on the Australian men’s No2 and jeered him.
But one silver lining was that the Moscow-born Gavrilova could spend time in her new home of Melbourne, where she’d relocated with fellow world No. 1 junior and boyfriend Luke Saville, whom she met at a junior Davis and Fed Cup final in 2011. I try. I fight.
Viewers of the match compared Seven’s decision to broadcast the notes to reading Gavrilova’s personal diary or opening her mail. “If in rally situation look to keep ball her Bh (backhand) look for Fh’s (forehands) then look (to play) it quick into her fh”, one pointer read. Following the US Open, Radwanska was three spots out of the final spot.
Gavrilova will have to be content with making the last 16 at a major for the first time after taking down two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova in round two and then scoring a fighting three-set triumph over French seed Kristina Mladenovic.
The Swiss master said he wasn’t fazed by the late start, and said playing a relatively easy match after a tougher tussle two days earlier was a “nice surprise”.
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“I was beating a top-10 player, I was winning 6-Love, I was up 1-Love in the second set”.
