MELBOURNE PARK, Australia – Reigning and former Wimbledon winners Petra Kvitova and Maria Sharapova have set up a rematch of their 2011 Wimbledon final by handily taking out their quarterfinal foes on Wednesday. Thre Russian Sharapova took out Serena William conqueror Ekaterina Makarova 6-2, 6-3 while the Czech Petra Kvitova came back from 1-4 down in the second set to win 6-4, 6-4 against Italy’s Sara Errani.
“It was solid today,†Sharapova said of her play. “You know, I thought she was going to play really well today coming off a big win, probably her biggest in her career. It was just really important for me to not give her much of a look at the open court.
“You know, I just really wanted to take advantage of my game and improve from the previous match. I think I stepped up when I had to.â€
Makarova had no answers for Sharapova, “Yeah, she’s a great player. She played really good today, so aggressive. Maybe I couldn’t show my best tennis because she all the time pushing me.
“I missed a lot of easy balls because I need to make maybe more harder. But I think she played really good today.
“For sure I should move her and let her run. Sometimes I didn’t make that good today because she played so aggressive and pushed me all the time. It was difficult.â€
Kvitova was very happy with her victory, “Well, yeah, of course, I’m really like to be here in the semifinal here in the Australian. Yeah, is the second my best result in a Grand Slam, so really it’s nice.
“Yeah, of course, I want to win the semifinals, too. I try my best, as always. Hopefully it will be nice match.
“Actually, the beginning I was a little nervous because I knew that everybody expect it will be easy match. Probably I had in my head that it’s, I mean, good draw. But, anyway, Sara played very well and she was great. She had a great tournament here.
“I mean, she has to play very well because she won the matches before, so it wasn’t really easy match.â€
Sharapova spoke to media about playing Kvitova in the semis. “It will certainly be tough. I’ve lost to her the last couple of times ‑ obviously the big one in Wimbledon where she played really well.
I think she’s the one to beat right now, playing the best tennis in her career. Coming off of so many wins last year, I’m looking forward to the matchup. I don’t like losing so many times in a row. So I’ll certainly be going out there and trying to play my best.â€
The Australian Open women’s semifinals take place on Thursday.
Karen Pestaina for Tennis Panorama News