(January 22, 2014) Agnieszka Radwanska ended Victoria Azarenka‘s run at a third straight Australian Open title on Wednesday when the fifth seed knocked out the defending champ 6-1, 5-7, 6-0. The victory for Radwanska moves her into her first Australian Open semifinal.
With defending champion Novak Djokovic knocked out of the tournament by Stanislas Wawrinka with both he and Victoria Azarenka losing in the quarterfinals it is the first time both the defending champions have lost in the quarterfinals at the Australian Open in the Open Era.
The last time the two defending champions lost in the quarterfinals at any Grand Slam in the Open Era was at 1997 Roland Garros when 1996 champions Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Steffi Graf lost in the last eight.
The win snapped Azarenka’s 18-match win streak in Melbourne. It also ended Radwanska’s 7 match losing streak to the Belarusian dating back to 2011 and her three consecutive quarterfinal losses at the Australian Open. It was just the Polish women’s fourth win against Azarenka in 16 attempts.
“I think it’s hard to play someone I lost so many times before,” Radwanska said. “I knew she’s great player. Especially here, she’s playing amazing tennis.
“On the other hand, I really have nothing to lose. She was defending the title, not me. I was really trying to play my best tennis, go for every shot I could.
“You know, I’m just very happy because I really was playing great tennis.”
Radwanska used an all-court game – at times scrambling for every shot to playing finesse tennis to confuse and dismantle a usually hard-hitting Azarenka.
“I think it’s hard to talk about the game plan against someone that can do everything on court,” said the Pole. “Pretty much everything is going back. Not really much mistakes. So I think I was just trying to play aggressive, not in the middle. I think focus on the serves as well.
“I think you really have to do everything to beat those kind of players like Vika.”
“A lot of good rallies definitely,” she continued, “amazing points, and running forward, backwards, side to side for so many times.
“Well, I was really feeling good on court today. I think, you know, I was feeling I could really do everything, trying and fighting for every point, every ball.”
“The first set and the third set, I think there was just too many mistakes and too many easy mistakes on important moments,” said Azarenka. “Like from the dropshot to the dropshot, or just I had the full court. Of course, she was passing amazing today and getting to every ball.
“But I just didn’t have the focus on finishing the point so accurate. That definitely changed the momentum. She really took advantage of that. It was hard to come back.
“But, I don’t know, my game wasn’t there today as I wanted it to. But she definitely played really well.”
“She was aggressive,” the world No. 2 said. “She was making everything. She was guessing right. I was just playing a little bit too predictive, you know.
“In the second set I managed to fight back. Third set, you know, the first game was important. I let it go, like easily let it go. From there just couldn’t get back to it. It was tough.”
In an upset-ridden Australian Open in which the top three women’s seeds – Serena Williams, Azarenka and Maria Sharapova, have all been ousted by the quarterfinals, there will be a first-time winner in Melbourne among the remaining women. The semifinal line-up: Radwanska against No. 20 Dominika Cibulkova and No. 4 Li Na against Canadian Eugenie Bouchard.
“I’m so happy and pleased, especially that I beat one of the best players in the world, Radwanska said. “Was not easy draw, not easy quarterfinal.
“I’m very happy that I made my first semifinal here.
I think every semifinal, every final is a huge experience with tennis. Those experience I just had from Wimbledon. Of course, I’m just very happy, you know, to reach the semifinal at other Grand Slam.
“So I think this is the level everybody playing great tennis. Well, it’s a bit more pressure. This is the semifinal of a Grand Slam. Especially here, first time for me.
“Hopefully I will play the same tennis as today.”
Radwanska said that her match-up against Cibulkova next, will be a challenging one, since she been playing against since she was 9 or ten:
“I think it’s always tricky to play someone that you know for so long, play so many times, as well. Like I’m saying, every match is a different story, especially when it’s a semifinal of a Grand Slam, the first semis for me and for her as well. Well, we’ll see.”