Australia has been a happy hunting ground for the World number one and defending Australian Open champion Serena Williams, who wasted little time as she booked her place in the semi-finals of this year’s tournament with a straight-sets win over arguably her toughest opponent so far, Maria Sharapova. She will now face Polish star, Agnieszka Radwanska in the Rod Laver Arena for a place in the years inaugural Grand Slam Final. On paper, though, things don’t look quite
On paper, though, things don’t look quite so good for the Pole, with Serena leading the head-to-head 8-0. Radwanska, however, did get the better of Serena as she helped Poland beat the United States in Perth to lift the Hopman Cup for the first time in early 2015. The hard-hitting American top seed appears invincible this time having lost just 22 games in the entire tournament, 9 of which came in her 1st round win vs Camila Giorgi, in her quest to match Steffi Graf’s Open-era Grand Slam record of 22 titles. Every time Serena Williams has made the semi-final at the Australian Open, she has gone on to lift the trophy. Serena appeared enthusiastic about facing her friend in Agnieszka when asked in a recent courtside interview.”She’s been playing really well towards the end of the year, and already this year she’s been very consistent,” she said.
“I think it will be a long match and it will be a good match to see where I am.” “Whoever wins, we both deserve to be in the final”.
“Whoever wins, we both deserve to be in the final”.
“If she wins, I’ll be very happy for her. I’m sure she’ll feel the same way.”
But the Pole who is currently ranked 4th in the rankings remained confident in her own form.
“Well, I think it’s good, especially that I did semi-finals here and I won the tournament before (WTA Championship),’’ Radwanska said. “Couldn’t be better so far.’’ One area of her game, however, that Radwanska knows she must lift against Williams is her service game. “I didn’t serve that good (in quarter-final). I was trying to focus on that, especially that it was tough on the one hand side,’’ Radwanska said. “But definitely, when you play someone like Serena you’re trying more. You have to really go for it, yeah.’’