Serena Williams vs Maria Sharapova, Australian Open 2016

"She's an incredibly intense, focused player who was No. 1 and won so many Grand Slams for a reason".

Federer is bidding to win his 5th Australian Open and his first Grand Slam since 2012 Wimbledon.

The American defeated the Russian five-time Grand Slam victor 6-4, 6-1, for her 18th consecutive victory, and seventh straight victory in straight sets, to book her place in the semi-finals at the Rod Laver Arena. It appeared as though Sharapova would be at least competitive in the match, if not have a shot at the upset win to break her 17 match losing streak against Williams.

"Plus, when I play her, I know automatically I have to step up my game, I think that makes me play better". "Today I don't have the good feeling to play good tennis, the good mentality to play more aggressive or try to play a little bit better than I play".

The 2nd set saw Serena show exactly why she is considered to be the best female tennis player of all time.

A Williams double-fault gifted Sharapova one of two break points but both were saved with booming serves as the top seed held to lead 5-4.

Serena showed what she was made off as she fought back to bring the score level at 4-4.

"When you're playing someone who's so great, you have to come out with a lot of fire and intensity", she added.

"It will be a good match", Williams said. But I think this will be a time to just get myself ready for a long year. I've done everything that I didn't want to do, you know.

"When I got in the rally I wasn't moving forward, wasn't cutting the angles off enough", Sharapova said. I like the way she hits the ball.

In the men s draw, top seed Novak Djokovic is up against Kei Nishikori, the Japanese world number seven who stunned the Serb to reach the 2014 US Open final.

"I have been playing this whole week aggressively, but it did not start out that way in the first set", Williams said.

With Steffi Graf's Open-era record of 22 major titles within sight at the Australian Open, and Margaret Court's all-time mark of 24 on the horizon, she has no plans to hang up her racquet.

Next up for Murray will be No. 8 David Ferrer, a two-time semifinalist, who held off No. 10-seeded American John Isner 6-4, 6-4, 7-5.

"Yeah, maybe. The longer the match goes, maybe I have slightly bigger chance", Djokovic said.

A net cord prevented Sharapova from sealing the hold and a lengthy game ensued in which Williams carved out four set points. But Sharapova just couldn't capitalize on her small window of opportunities and Serena ran away with it in the end.

Federer crushed sixth-seeded Czech Tomas Berdych 7-6 (7-4) 6-2 6-4 in his quarter-final earlier on Tuesday to progress to the last four at a major for a mind-boggling 40th time. You don't need to spend words on his achievements - he is a great champion and someone I have a lot of respect for.

An ultra-competitive opening set eventually gave way to a landslide as the world No. 1 rolled to a 6-4, 6-1 win over Maria Sharapova to advance to the Australian Open semifinals. "At the start of the second set I wanted to play the way I have been doing to get to the quarter-finals".

Tennis bodies announce review of anti-corruption unit
Haggerty, however, suggested increasing prize money at lower-level events was not a solution he would advocate. "We'll find out. No deadline has been fixed for the panel to finish its work and the results will be made public.