The men’s and women’s fourth seeds, David Nalbandian and Maria Sharapova, justified their standings to become the first players into the Australian Open semifinals on Tuesday.
Nalbandian, of Argentina, destroyed unseeded French veteran Fabrice Santoro 7-5, 6-0, 6-0, but teenager Sharapova was made to sweat before getting past Nadia Petrova, the sixth seed.
Sharapova, Russian but Florida-based, had to work hard in a 71-minute first set against her compatriot, but upped the tempo in the second to emerge a 7-6 (8/6), 6-4 winner.
It is Sharapova’s second straight semifinal here, but she has never been further. To do that this time she will have to beat either top seed Lindsay Davenport or the dangerous Belgian Justine Henin-Hardenne.
”It was very difficult. I’ve played Nadia in the last two grand slams in the quarterfinals as well and we’ve had such tough matches, and I’ve been able to pull through so I’m very happy,” said Sharapova.
The Russian number one is becoming a grand-slam bogeyman for Petrova, beating her at the same stage in the last two majors — the United States Open and Wimbledon last year.
Nalbandian ground out an easy win against Santoro, who troubled him in the first set with some unorthodox play before collapsing in the second and third with the match ending after just one hour and 41 minutes, shorter than Sharapova’s.
The Argentine will play either Croatian seventh seed Ivan Ljubicic or unseeded Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus in Thursday’s semifinal. They play later on Tuesday.
”In the beginning it was very tough; Fabrice has a very special game and so it wasn’t easy to get into the match,” Nalbandian said. ”I was a little nervous and I wasn’t hitting the ball as well as I did in the second and third sets, so when I got a little confidence I started to hit harder with better angles and closer to the lines.
”I made a difference when I broke him at 4-3 [in the first set] and from there on I played very well.”
Nalbandian has now reached the semifinals of all four grand slam events — the French Open (2004), Wimbledon (2002) and US Open (2003) and the Australian Open — and is bidding to become only the second Argentinian to win the Australian Open.
Guillermo Vilas was the first in 1978 and 1979.
In the other quarterfinals on Tuesday, Davenport confronts Henin-Hardenne, who has won their past five meetings and is in a rich vein of form. The imposing American dominated Henin-Hardenne early in the Belgian’s career, but the eighth seed has reversed the trend.
Henin-Hardenne is on an 18-match unbeaten run in Australia, which includes her Sydney title this year and her Sydney and Open titles in 2004. She missed last year’s Australian Open through injury.
Davenport admitted she is looking for revenge.
”It would be nice, I’ve lost to her the last few times,” said the three-time grand-slam winner, who has been frustrated by an ankle injury but believes her game is coming together.
Ljubicic and Baghdatis contest the other men’s quarterfinal on Tuesday, which is a new experience for both of them with neither having been this far at a grand slam.
Cypriot Baghdatis, who has won an army of admirers in Australia with his infectious grin and outlandish comments, has the advantage of beating the Croat number seven seed here in the second round last year.
The crowd will be rooting for him, but Ljubicic is favourite after finding a consistency that has driven him into the top 10.
”That loss last year really hurt a lot, and I’m really glad to have a chance for revenge,” said the shaven-headed Croat, who has his own loud Croatian cheer squad to gee him on. — Sapa-AFP