Aga and Li replay Sydney

The winner of today's first match would become this year's first semi finalist so much hinged on how both 4th seed Agnieszka Radwanska and 6th seed Li Na handled the early stages of their quarter final.  Li has been through to a final here but Aga more recently has made the final at Wimbledon.
Aga defeated Li for the first time in their last four meetings at the Sydney International, going on to win that tournament as part of her dominant summer so far, also winning in Auckland.

Li has also been one of the form tour players with a tournament win in China immediately to her name in 2013.

Li Na served and took forever to convince the scorer to put a "1" beside her name, deuce being the most popular call by the chair umpire.  The serve was held, with two break points saved, and a billion or so hearts moved from mouths back to chests in China.

Aga Radwanska acted upon Li Na's recommendation and chose deuce as a destination in her first crack at the serve, and happily for Poland the service hold did not require as much nerve management.
For the people who missed the start of the match and had to wait 3 games before finding their seats it proved a long wait, exacerbated by Li Na's insistence that her second service game follow the deuce pattern with break points again incorporated.  Her tactic did not pay off entirely because one of the break points was actually converted, presenting Radwanska with a 2-1 lead.

The world number 4 failed to capitalise on the break and Li Na bounced back directly with one of her own.

The match had Li Na attacking more than in Sydney, with many winners struck as a result, and the errors kept reasonably in check.  The serve added no value for which ever of the players was fortunate to be using it at the time.

Breaks occurred in games five and six before Li Na stopped the bleeding and we had 3-3.

This became 4-4 and then a service break delivered by a doctor conveniently in the crowd to a proud mum in Aga had the place rocking.
Serving too soon after the delivery, Aga made some simple mistakes and Li Na benefited.

Li Na took the reins of the first set and galloped away on it, leaving Aga and her mount at the barriers.
7-5.

Apart from the first game of Set 2, where a selection of Li Na errors were as sweet as Lindt chocolates to Aga's palate,  things were pretty much the same for the fourth seed as in Set One.
Li Na in most rallies was too strong and would end up pushing Aga off balance or out of court with her forcing forehands or backhands.  Her net tactics were smarter today also, and while not greeting the net on a Stepanek scale, whenever she did it usually was behind a suitably weighted approach shot.

The break back occurred in the fourth game and the defining moment in the sixth where a winning Li Na backhand sealed a second break and a 4-2 lead.

The Chinese star shone brightly which admittedly was odd given the blue sky and sunny conditions, but she had no worries reaching 5-3 and service to come for the win.

Aga gave one last yelp, setting up two break points, but as had been the trend all match Li Na played the big points the better and saved those and went on to victory 7-5 6-3.

Huge disappointment for Agnieszka Radwanska, still without an Aus Open Semi Final on her CV, but another example of why Li Na loves Australia.  Beware Maria Sharapova or Ekaterina Makarova.  The winner of that match will be playing a super confident Li Na who is mentally tougher than most.