China’s Li Na snapped the 13-match winning streak of fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska with a 7-5, 6-3 quarterfinal victory at the Australian Open on Tuesday.
China’s sixth seed was dominant as she faced the form player of this season who had not lost a set before she faced Li.
“She’s a tough player, I was feeling today (like playing) a wall,” said Li. “She can hit everywhere, but without a mistake.
“You have to focus on every shot — not every point, every shot.
“I wasn’t fast enough today, especially at the beginning of the match, I was really running a lot,” Radwanska said. “It cost me a little too much power in the beginning.” Li had lost to Radwanska just over a week ago in the Sydney semifinals.
“She played better than last week in Sydney,” said Radwanska.
“Definitely she was very solid from the beginning of the match. She was really playing good tennis.
“In some of the games she didn’t let me do anything: very deep balls all the time. Good serve. She was really playing good tennis today.”
David Ferrer continued his career-long mastery of Nicolas Almagro, rallying from two sets down for a 4-6, 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (4), 6-2 win in the quarterfinals.
It was Ferrer’s 13th consecutive victory over his Spanish Davis Cup teammate.
Almagro served for the match in the 10th game of the third set and the 10th and 12th games of the fourth set, but was broken each time by Ferrer.
Sharapova on song
Maria Sharapova advanced to the semifinals with a 6-2, 6-2 win over fellow Russian Ekaterina Makarova.
She broke Makarova’s serve five times and hit 22 winners. Sharapova has dropped only nine games en route to the semifinals, including a pair of 6-0, 6-0 wins.
This article has been edited for a factual error
