Defending champion Kim Clijsters and world no.3 Victoria Azarenka will compete for a place in Saturday's Australian Open final. Clijsters, playing in what she says is likely to be her last Australian Open, picked up a solid 6-3, 7-6 (4) win against world no.1 Caroline Wozniacki in sweltering hot conditions at Melbourne Park this afternoon. That loss means that Wozniacki, who is still searching for her maiden Grand Slam title, will in all likelihood lose the number 1 ranking come Monday. Earlier in the day, Victoria Azarenka of Belarus was the first woman to book a semi-final spot with a lopsided 6-7, 6-0, 6-2 win against 8th seed Agnieszka Radwanska.
Clijsters came into her match with Wozniacki as the overwhelming favourite, despite the 21-year old being the top ranked player in the world. With greater power, better athleticism, immense experience and a lot more guile in her corner, the match would clearly be won (or lost) by how well she played, despite the best efforts of the Danish counter puncher. To Wozniacki's credit though she made Kim hit a lot of balls and packed a bit more punch on her first serve, but that wasn't enough to deny the Belgian.
A spot each was up for grabs in the men's and women's quarter-finals of the 2012 Australian Open at the start of the evening session on Day 8, and the two favourites for those positions duly obliged their legion of fans, perhaps to the disappointment of the late evening Melbourne crowd as a Shrieking Maria Sharapova and world no.1 Novak Djokovic completed the set of eight. Sharapova's win was particularly hard fought as she powered her way past the delightful German Sabine Lisicki's, whose only contributions to the noise around Melbourne Park was the odd squeal, while Djokovic ended local hopes in the singles competition by brushing aside the challenge of former Wimbledon champion Lleyton Hewitt in four sets.
Had he tried, world no.4 Andy Murray could not have scripted a better day at the Australian Open. The two time runner-up here in Melbourne Park spent just 49 minutes on court cruising into the quarter-finals when his struggling opponent Mikhail Kukushkin retired from their fourth round match. In sharp contrast, the two men competing for the spot opposite Murray in the quarters - Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Kei Nishikori - were on court 3½ hours battling it out for 5 sets on the hottest day of the Australian Open.
The start of the second week of the Australian Open brought its fair share of surprises with 5-time champion Serena Williams being stunned by 23-year old Russian left-hander Ekaterina Makarova. While Williams self combusted in the Melbourne heat during the early stages of the contest, Makarova played some terrific tennis late in the second set to stave off a typical Williams fightback. Earlier in the day, the leading left-hander on the ladies tour, Petra Kvitova brought an end to the challenge of popular Serb Ana Ivanovic in straight sets.
Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer stayed on course for a possible semi-final showdown at the Australian Open by recording facile wins in their respective fourth round matches on Rod Laver Arena today. Nadal playing against good friend and compatriot Feliciano Lopez coasted to a routine 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 win, while Federer came through a potentially tricky encounter against Aussie teenager Bernard Tomic, 6-4, 6-2, 6-2. Standing in the way of an epic Nadal and Federer showdown are a couple of really big men in Tomas Berdych and Juan Martin del Potro, respectively. Berdych needed almost 4 hours to beat an angry Aussie crowd and 10th seed Nicolas Almagro, 4-6, 7-6, 7-6, 7-6, while Del Potro cruised past Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-4, 6-2, 6-1.
An enthralling contest, easily the match of the tournament thus far, saw defending champion Kim Clijsters battle back from four matchpoints down in the second set tiebreak to beat no.5 seed Li Na 4-6, 7-6, 6-4 in a repeat of last year's final. While Clijsters and Li Na were engaged in an all mighty battle of wills, Victoria Azarenka and Agnieszka Radwanska were operating in cruise control, dropping 4 and 2 games respectively en route to the quarter-finals.
Two time Australian Open runner-up Andy Murray produced an outstanding 48 winners on his way to a comprehensive 6-4, 6-2, 6-0 rout of French veteran Michael Llodra in the third round of the Australian Open late on Saturday evening. Joining Murray in the last 16 was the local favourite Lleyton Hewitt, who used his experience to full effect to quell the challenge of 21-year old Canadian sensation Milos Raonic. Other late winners in the third round were Asian no.1 Kei Nishikori and Kazakhstan's Mikhail Kukushkin, a surprise 5-set winner against 14th seed Gael Monfils.