Serena Williams beats Sharapova, reaches Aussie Open semis

Roger Federer of Switzerland celebrates after defeating Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic in their quarterfinal match at the Australian Open tennis championships in Melbourne, Australia, Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2016.

On the men’s side, Roger Federer kept his hopes of another grand slam success alive, setting up a potential semi-final with tournament favourite Novak Djokovicl.

The Australian Open is still well underway and yesterday saw Serena Williams beat Maria Sharapova 6-4 6-1.

“I’ve played these guys (Federer and Nadal) so many different occasions”.

The World No. 1 was seen by the tournament doctor twice and appeared to be given a fruit bar – her coach Patrick Mouratoglou told reporters she was dizzy; Williams said she’d suffered from food poisoning a “few days ago” – but even an under-the-weather Williams can win grand slams. I think that’s really important.

She missed three with netted forehands, partially forced by Sharapova’s courageous second serve, but the fourth was converted with a cool forehand volley. Williams, who only lost three matches in 56 last season, called the trainer out, apparently feeling unwell, but she soldiered on and took control with an early break in the second set, wrong-footing Sharapova with a blistering backhand.Sharapova was wilting and the double fault count was rising with Williams taking another break to lead 4-0.

He came up with the big plays while facing break points in the first two sets, and only dropped serve in two exchanges of breaks in the third.

Federer, the 17-time grand slam champion, progressed first, beating sixth seed Tomas Berdych 7-6 (7-4) 6-2 6-4 to earn a spot in the last four at the Australian Open for a record extending 12th time. Up next for her is fourth-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska, who beat No. 10 Carla Suarez Navarro 6-1, 6-3 to reach a Grand Slam semifinal for the fifth time. He lost to the Serbian star five of the six times they met in finals in 2015, including Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.

He will meet the victor of today’s second quarter-final between defending champion Novak Djokovic and No 7 seed Kei Nishikori.

To her credit, Sharapova refused to back down, chasing down every ball and still going toe-to-toe with Williams despite not having much success. “Personally, I didn’t think I’d be playing at this age”, she said as she guns for a seventh Australian Open crown. “I still have to win two matches”.

Federer and Djokovic contest a 45th head to head, the series tied at 22-22.

“Any round feels like finals because of the fact that we are, you know, big rivals, we played so many times against each other”, Djokovic said. She makes you go back to the drawing board, not just for me, but for many other players.

She was broken on her opening serve but soon got on the scoreboard as her power serve found its range and her game started coming together.

They played in the Wimbledon and U.S. Open finals previous year, each time Djokovic prevailing.

“I have to be satisfied, I reached (the) semifinals”.

“He always makes you play your best”.

Djokovic thus rebounded from his whopping 100 unforced errors in a five-set win Sunday against French counterpuncher Gilles Simon.