Kerber is the first German into the last four at the Australian Open since Anke Huber in 1998. “I played smart, aggressively, took my opportunities and I really kept my composure”.
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“I tried to serve well from the first point and play more aggressive than the last few times I played her. This is an incredible feeling to play here on center court”, she said of the experience.
“I think that’s what she did today. We played some brutal rallies at the end of the second set and the beginning of the third”.
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) – Andy Murray and a much lesser-known British player, Johanna Konta, advanced to the Australian Open semifinals Wednesday, when the action on court had to compete with news about the integrity of the sport.
Despite Kerber’s advantage, the match felt like it might go three sets anyway.
David Ferrer has reached his sixth quarterfinal at the Australian Open, without dropping a set.
Murray put the medical emergency behind him but it was a scrappy match, as he broke the Australian’s serve six times and dropped his own serve four times.
The first Grand Slam of the season has been overshadowed from the start by media reports alleging that tennis authorities had failed to thoroughly investigate evidence of match-fixing.
The final two players in the quarters will be determined later Monday when American Madison Keys squares off against Chinese qualifier Zhang Shuai and British hope Johanna Konta plays Russia’s Ekaterina Makarova.
Azarenka, 26, explained all this during a visit to New York City late last fall, just as the top players in the world-minus an exhausted Serena Williams-were in Singapore competing at the season-ending championships.
Djokovic lost in the quarterfinals to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in 2010, then won the tournament in 2011, 2012 and 2013.
Raonic lost to Djokovic in the quarterfinals here a year ago.
Zhang says her two weeks in Melbourne should result in a big rankings boost that could help her get into the Rio Olympics for China.
Broncos fans are everywhere, including down under at the Australian Open.
Raonic held in the next game, clinching it with an ace, and Wawrinka saved a match point in his next service game. “Can someone tell me if the Broncos won?” she asked the crowd at Rod Laver Arena during a courtside interview.
She said after her last match that part of her intensity and focus on court came from thriving on big-match pressure, a trait that served her well again Monday.
Two-time champion Victoria Azarenka has continued her impressive run into the quarter-finals of the Australian Open with a 6-2 6-4 victory over Czech Barbora Strycova.
But once she did, Azarenka was hard to stop.
While on paper, the seventh seeded Kerber might have been expected to advance over the lower seeded No. 14 Azarenka, this was definitely a case of the opposite.
Belarusian 14th seed Azarenka has won all six of her previous six meetings with Kerber, who accounted for countrywoman Annika Beck 6-4 6-0 on the same day.
Williams, who also beat 2008 champion Sharapova in the final here last year, also won the French Open and Wimbledon in 2015 and got within two wins of a calendar-year Grand Slam before losing in the U.S. Open finals.
It was Radwanska’s third win in four matches against Suarez Navarro.
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VICTORIA AZARENKA MAY have booked her spot in the last eight of the Australian Open with a straight-sets win over Barbora Strycova, but she had other things on her mind in the immediate aftermath.
