Australian Open: Women's quarter-finals

Day 1 of the women's quarter-finals at the 2016 Australian Open saw a couple of very interesting matches take place. Here we take a look at the results from the matches today and how the winners were chosen.

Agnieszka Radwanska vs Carla Suarez-Navarro

On paper, this had looked like a relatively easy match. 4th seed Radwanska, who had been in splendid form of late, was up against 10th seed Carla Suarez-Navarro of Spain, who had not had the easiest way to the quarter-finals, and definitely not as easy as Radwanska.

The first set was completely straightforward for Radwanska, who took her Spanish opponent to the cleaners with a 6-1 win.

The second set, however, saw Suarez-Navarro attempt to wrest control of the match right back – and given the momentum she had begun to build up, it did not appear to be an impossibility.

The feisty Spaniard managed to claw her way back to 3-3 after the 2015 WTA Finals winner initially took a 2-0 lead, with each of the players then proceeding to break each other in quick succession.

In fact, this match could possibly have gone Suarez-Navarro’s way, with 22 winners to the Pole’s 15. She was ultimately let down by an extremely high unforced error count – 45 in the two-setter, worse for the fact that she committed over three times as many as Radwanska, who ended with 13.

The Pole will now play World No. 1 Serena Williams – who holds an 8-0 head to head record against her and has been in scintillating form.

You can watch all the highlights and key moments from Radwanska’s win over Suarez-Navarro on SonyLiv.com here or use the SonyLiv app. You can also watch and livestream matches on SonyLIV.com or on the SonyLiv app, available for both iOS and Android devices.

Serena Williams vs Maria Sharapova

This encounter was best described as one-sided, as is much of the current world No. 1’s rivalry with the former world No. 1. In today’s quarterfinal, it was Williams who started off relatively slower, with Sharapova going up a break in the first set.

But Williams, who sometimes starts off relatively slowly, picked up the pace quite quickly to take the scoreline to lead 3-2. The powerful American rained aces on court – 13 to the Russian’s mere 3. Although she committed a number of unforced errors, the fact that she outhit Sharapova in every other aspect made up for her 20 errors.

The first set was not all Sharapova lost – she also appeared thereafter to lose the plot after going down 4-6 in a 55-minute set. The second set was fairly straightforward for Williams, who missed out on last year’s Calendar Slam after a shock US Open semi-final ouster.

The American took only 36 minutes to finish up the second set and with that her quarter-final match, taking her rival to break point on two occasions and successfully capitalizing on each.

She’s reached the finals of the Australian Open six times in the past – and won the title each time, and she was likely buoyed by her immense results over the past year.Williams looks a firm favourite to win the title a 7th time – and with it, equal Steffi Graf’s record of 22 Grand Slam titles. Williams takes on Polish ace Radwanska in the semi-finals, and has won each of the eight matches the pair have played against each other.

You can watch all the highlights and key moments from Serena’s win over Sharapova on SonyLiv.com here or use the SonyLiv app. You can also watch and livestream matches on SonyLIV.com or on the SonyLiv app, available for both iOS and Android devices.