We're moving into the second week of the Australian Open, so all the big matches between seeded players are coming up!
Generally the law of the WTA rankings prevailed in the fourth round. Only Kerber lost to a lower ranked player, falling to Makarova (seeded 19th): 5-7, 4-6. The Russian claimed an early break in the first set and clung on for dear life to serve it out. In the second set, Kerber was hammering on the Makarova service games, but couldn't break through. Makarova sealed her place in the quarterfinals against another Russian: Sharapova. I'm grateful to her, she left Belgian Flipkens a game (the opening game). That's all I got as a favor, because the next twelve games went her way: 6-1, 6-0.
Radwanska was the more consistent player in her match against Ivanovic. Sometimes there would be some amazing points, but at the more important stages of the match, Ivanovic made too much errors: 6-2, 6-4. The Pole meets Na Li in her quarterfinal after the Chinese wondergirl toughed it out against Goerges after a very close first set: 7-6(6), 6-1.
Serena and Azarenka cruised through their fourth round with both losing just two games to Kirilenko and Vesnina respectively. Their opponents (Stephens for Serena and Kuznetsova against Azarenka) both needed three sets to claim their quarterfinal spot. Stephens made an impressive recovery against Jovanovski: 6-1, 2-6, 7-5, while Kuznetsova downed Wozniacki: 6-2, 2-6, 7-5. I'm happy for Kuznetsova, who is finally bouncing back from a period littered with injuries.
The quarterfinals were all about: something's gotta give. Radwanska was on a perfect roll from Auckland on, Sharapova is blasting every opponent off the court in this Australian Open, Azarenka is having an amazing year being on that number one spot and Serena... is just Serena. Taking Wimbledon, the US Open, two golden medals, the Year End Championships and roughly 7 million in price money in 2012. Someone has to crack in this tournament because there will be just one winner.
The first one was Radwanska. In a sloppy performance against Na Li (21 unforced errors for the Pole and many service breaks!), she lost the first two sets of this year: 7-5, 6-3.
But she's human after all and a quarterfinal run (for three straight years in the Australian Open) isn't bad at all! It's very worthy of a number four and hopefully she'll be as succesful in the next few tournaments. In the end it's Na Li's turf in Australia (as Asian Grand Slam marked too and always performing really well here). Funny thing: because of the sun, Na Li hit a serve right into the crowd, this is her response:
Gotta love her on-court interviews! In the end she says: Carlos [her coach], we gotta practice on the serve, in case you missed that!
The next shocking quarterfinal experience was this:
Oh yes, Serena was stunned by Stephens, who saw that coming?! Anyway, she's still capable of smashing a racquet like a man though.
The match was incredible, Serena seemed to have the win in her pocket, claiming the first set: 6-3 and leading with a break in the second. Stephens just showed some amazing defense and when Serena hurt her back when hitting a volley, the match turned around completely for the young American.
The shocked look and the on-court interview after said everything, this is an amazing accomplishment! We're gonna see more of that 19 year old girl, that's for certain. I'm betting Azarenka is very grateful to her...
The number one on her part started off way too passive against Kuznetsova in the first set but with a fortunate break in the first set at 5-5, Azarenka turned the match around to win: 7-5, 6-1. Sharapova undisturbed blasted forth, beating Makarova: 6-2, 6-2. She at least won the same number of games as Venus, that's may be some comfort.
So two caved, two head on strong to the semifinals. The number one battle is still not fought, either Serena, Azarenka or Sharapova is still in the running. Azarenka needs to take the Australian Open title, Sharapova just needs to get in the final or Serena gets the number one spot. I'm going for the Russian, but I'm not sure who is winning that title! Keep posted for the Azarenka - Stephens and Sharapova - Na Li semifinals!
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