Top seed Serena Williams raced through her Australian Open tennis semi-final against No 4 seed Agnieszka Radwanska, clinching a 6-0, 6-4 victory with a flurry of aces here on Thursday.
Advertisement
Russian Sharapova broke the world number one in the first game and mounted a stiff challenge in the opening set but wilted in the second to extend a losing record against Williams that goes back 12 years.
It was Williams who eventually prevailed 6-0, 6-4 in the end, however, to book a place in her 26th grand slam final.
Sharapova struck a career-high 21 aces Sunday against Belinda Bencic when rain forced their encounter to be played indoors, but Mouratoglou doubted she could do it again.
“I think she started unbelievable, with such a power and speed”.
“It would mean a lot to me, no doubt about it, ” Federer said Tuesday when asked about the significance of winning one more major in the era of Djokovic. Because it doesn’t matter the surface or where these two play: Serena always wins.
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”.
“She won through her qualities, her competitiveness, with her confidence, serve, but the level of play wasn’t fabulous”.
The Pole admitted she was left in awe after seeing her 13-match win streak emphatically halted by the Williams juggernaut.
But Williams, 34, held off her opponent’s charge.
Early on, the only question was whether Williams, the world No. 1, would become the first player since Chris Evert in the 1984 French Open to double-bagel an opponent in a Grand Slam semifinal. I think the key from this match was that I was playing and I won the match.
“I feel I am playing the best I can – I can’t believe I am through to the final after taking so much time off”, she said.
Radwanska, set to improve her ranking to world No. 3 after a run to the last four, said she would be grabbing the popcorn on Saturday night in anticipation of a great show.
Federer also has some inspiration in his next match against Djokovic.
But after causing a major boilover by ousting Venus Williams in the opening round, she rolled all the way to semis before coming up short against Kerber. “Keep getting to the point where I have an opportunity to play against her”.
The first set was no contest, over in 20 minutes.
Williams is 8-0 against Radwanska in their head-to-head matches, and a staggering 24-4 against the four women remaining in the bottom half of the draw.
The American was hitting booming shots to perfection, while Radwanska was struggling to get the ball over the net.
Federer and Djokovic have played 44 times with the wins split equally between them, although the Serbian won their meetings in finals at Wimbledon and the US Open a year ago.
“Yes, a great week for German tennis to reach the first Grand Slam final of the year”, Kerber said. “She makes you go back to the drawing board, not just for me, but for many other players”, she explained. She doesn’t give you many angles. If she can put Konta under pressure early, the underdog might get rattled, but attacking comes naturally to Konta owing partly to her big serve.
Advertisement
Sharapova has had her own physical issues of late and said she did not expect to compete again until Indian Wells in March in order to nurse the forearm injury that interfered with her plans at the start of the season.
