Maria Sharapova drew on new-found resolve as she fought back to beat fellow Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova 4-6 6-2 6-2 on Tuesday to reach the Australian Open semi-finals for the first time.
Kuznetsova, 19, dominated the first set against a tentative and error-prone Sharapova but the match soon became a mental and physical battle to see who could endure scorching heat which hit 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) on Rod Laver Arena.
"I need a wheelchair right now," said fourth seed Sharapova in a television interview after her win.
"Mentally I just tried to tough it out. I thought this was one of the toughest matches of my life."
Sharapova now plays Serena Williams, the 2003 winner here, in a re-run of last year's Wimbledon title showdown which the Russian teenager won 6-1 6-4.
American Williams defeated second seed and 1999 runner-up Amelie Mauresmo of France 6-2 6-2 in their quarter-final on Monday.
The 17-year-old Russian said she had trained hard with coach Robert Lansdorp after her unexpected grand slam success in anticipation of the kind of challenge she faced from fifth seed and U.S. Open champion Kuznetsova.
"I was telling myself mentally just to get through it," Sharapova told a news conference.
"I kept thinking back to my off-season, how hard it was when I was training and I thought I couldn't go any more. But I knew that I had some more, even though my body thought I didn't."
The hard work paid off for Sharapova against a wilting Kuznetsova, who said she had inexplicably switched off after the first set.
"I just stopped playing. My body was there but my mind wasn't there at all," Kuznetsova said.
Kuznetsova used pace and depth from the back of the court to out-hit her opponent in the first set.
"From the beginning of the match it was quite hot. I was a bit lazy ... I didn't run for as many balls. I was making too many errors," said Sharapova, who lost her opening serve in the second set before staging a remarkable comeback.
The two players were given a 10-minute break after the second set, allowed under the tournament's extreme heat policy, and the Wimbledon champion said she came back refreshed.
"That's when we were starting to get a little tired and we wanted the points to go shorter so we were going for our shots," Sharapova said.
"I think the quality of the tennis picked up once we took the break. I felt like after I got the break my body cooled down a little bit."
Kuznetsova lost confidence in the face of Sharapova's fightback. Her groundstrokes disintegrated and she failed to hold serve in the last two sets, surrendering eight straight service games to slip to defeat in 137 minutes.
A dispirited Kuznetsova was 40-15 up in her final service game but lamely handed Sharapova her first match point with a double fault.
Sharapova clinched victory following a desperate rally, lunging across the baseline to whip a forehand cross court past a stranded Kuznetsova.
With this win Maria will also rise to a career high #3 position in the WTA Rankings.
View pictures of today's match
January 25th, 2005
Posted by: Marco
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