Australia Day fireworks were expected on court and off on day nine of the championships but Djokovic extinguished Kei Nishikori’s flame 6-3 6-2 6-4 and Williams doused every spark of a threat from Maria Sharapova to win 6-4 6-1.
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“It’s tough to sit here 30 minutes after the match and talk about the match, but that’s part of my job”, said Sharapova, who lost to Williams 12 months ago in the final of the Australian Open as well as the Wimbledon semi-finals last July.
Sharapova is “an incredibly intense, focused player who was number one and has won so many Grand Slams for a reason”.
“You have to come out with a lot of fire and intensity”.
Sania Mirza celebrated her Padma Bhushan award in fine style on Tuesday, notching up her 34th consecutive win with partner Martina Hingis to storm into the women’s doubles semifinals at the Australian Open.
Williams, the six-time champion, accelerated through the gears to record a 6-4 6-1 triumph at Rod Laver Arena in a rematch of the 2015 final.
Serena Williams, with 21 grand slam titles in her trophy cabinet, thinks she has nothing left to prove to anyone and just wants to have fun for the remainder of her career. The Serb won three Grand Slams – the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open – and reached the final at the French Open.
In her fourth-round victory against No. 12 Belinda Bencic, she had a career-high 21 aces.
Williams, seeking her seventh title here, broke fifth-seeded Sharapova’s serve and clinched an entertaining first set on her fourth set points.
Williams raced to a 3-0 lead in the second set and another visit from the doctor followed by another break of serve saw the top seed go up 4-0.
Serena Williams has revealed she was still suffering from the after effects of food poisoning throughout her Australian Open quarter-final victory over Maria Sharapova.
She missed three with netted forehands, partially forced by Sharapova’s courageous second serve, but the fourth was converted with a cool forehand volley.
Sharapova started strongly, breaking in the opening game, but Williams came roaring back to break twice in winning the first set.
The top-ranked Djokovic will play No. 3 Federer in a blockbuster semifinal match at the Australian Open. I know how it works up there.
“I’ve played these guys (Federer and Nadal) so many different occasions”.
His problem now is that he faces Novak Djokovic, the man who has beaten him in the last two, albeit competitive, Grand Slam finals. “But I couldn’t play good tennis today”. I like the way she hits the ball. She broke back to make it level pegging at 2-2 as the Russian’s serve faltered.
“It will be a good match”, Williams said.
In her post-match interview on court, Williams told the crowd that she’d started less aggressively than she liked. In the top half of the draw, the seeds have gone according to plan with top seed Serena Williams and the 4th seed Agnieszka Radwanska playing for a place in the final.
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However, Serena showed on Tuesday afternoon in Melbourne that when she’s on her game even the world’s best will struggle to even hang around with her. “I think in the second week of a Grand Slam you have nothing to lose, it doesn’t matter who you are playing”.
