Three semi-final matches were played today.
First up was Li Na vs Eugenie Bouchard. Bouchard, who’s been tipped to be a future Top 10 if not No 1. player, met her match today. The experienced Chinese player attacked Bouchard’s game at every corner.
Knowing that she was almost in the final, Li started to show signs of nerves creeping in which opened the door for Bouchard to break back in the second set. It was however a little too late as Li finished the set off and won the match 62 64.
Something went horribly wrong today for Aggie…..
Second up was Agnieszka Radwanska vs Dominika Cibulkova. Radwanska caused a major upset in the quarterfinals by ousting the defending champion, Victoria Azarenka.
Today however, it didn’t seem as though she had even arrived at the court. Take nothing away from Cibulkova who dominated the game from the beginning, running circles around the Pole, who must’ve thought that a hurricane was going through the stadium! Radwanska was frustrated and seemed to be in a state of disbelief at the end of the match. Cibulkova won 61 62.
Scintillating Stan!
The evening match was contested between Stanislas Wawrinka and Tomas Berdych.
Apart from Wawrinka leading the Head2Head 8-5, there was not much separating the two players. Berdych had not been tested until his quarterfinal match against David Ferrer. Wawrinka on the other hand had survived a tough five setter against Novak Djokovic.
The majority of the match went according to serve, Berdych finishing his off quite comfortably whereas Wawrinka was again made to work harder for his.
Berdych’s serve was lethal whereas Wawrinka’s forehand and backhand were deadly. Lady luck was unfortunately not on Berdych’s side as he missed a few easy points.
Wawrinka managed to break Berdych’s serve for the first set. The remainder of the match went to tiebreakers, with Berdych winning the second and Wawrinka the third and fourth.
Wawrinka will either play against his fellow countryman Roger Federer or Spain’s Rafael Nadal on Sunday. The old foes will do battle tomorrow.
Image courtesy of the Australian Open Tennis Tournament.