Defending champion Serena Williams defeated Maria Sharapova 6-4, 6-1 in the quaterfinals of the 2016 Australian Open as the most anticipated game of the competition has proven to be one of the most one-sided ones.
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Williams also has won 16 consecutive sets against Sharapova, who last won a set against Williams in 2013.
Her big-match experience pales in comparison to Williams who has won 21 Grand Slam titles, including six at Melbourne Park, and played in four other finals at the majors.
An ultra-competitive opening set eventually gave way to a landslide as the world No. 1 rolled to a 6-4, 6-1 win over Maria Sharapova to advance to the Australian Open semifinals. She was two wins away from a calendar-year Grand Slam in 2015 when she lost to Roberta Vinci in the U.S. Open semifinals.
Despite doubts over her fitness, having not completed a tour match since last September’s agonizing U.S. Open semifinal loss, the 34-year-old has yet to even come close to losing a set. After three quick unforced errors from Serena, Sharapova broke her to start the match and finished the second game with her first ace of the match to go up 2-0 in the opening set.
History-chasing Serena Williams touched on perfection on Thursday as she advanced to an Australian Open final showdown with ambitious German Angelique Kerber. Sharapova served 21 aces in her last match.
But after falling into a 2-0 hole, Williams reeled off six of the next eight games to take the early advantage.
The Russian showed character to storm back from 0-40 down to hold serve for 4-4 and was all over Williams’s serve in the next game, the American yelling “C’mon!” on successive points as she finally held.
Djokovic, now into his sixth Australian final – he’s won all five previous – held his first service game at love and broke Federer in the second.
“I’ve been playing all week aggressive but I didn’t start out that way”, Williams said, per Chris Graham of the Telegraph.
Sharapova said her lopsided record against Williams is, not surprisingly, a source of frustration. Plus, when I play her, I know automatically I have to step up my game. You know, she (Sharapova) always brings in something new and something special.
Radwanska, ranked fourth in the world, is no stranger to the top level of women’s tennis but she was made to look a minnow by Williams, who looks ominously back to her very best. “I was just standing there kind of watching her playing”.
Kerber summed up the message on Friday: “She told me, ‘Congrats, ‘ and she is happy for me and good luck in the finals”.
Williams loves returning shots with pace and she has no trouble with Sharapova’s serve.
While her record against Williams is not yet on the scale of Sharapova, it is still dismal. Her semifinal opponent Thursday will be Agnieszka Radwanska, with whom she was seen chatting and laughing in the hallway earlier this tournament, before one of Radwanska’s matches.
The American champ now goes into her seventh Australian Open final.
“But I think this will be a time to just get myself ready for a long year”.
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“She played quite explosive”, Sharapova said. “When I play better, when I’m forced to play better, I don’t know, I do well”.
