Sania Mirza celebrated her Padma Bhushan award in fine style on Tuesday, notching up her 34th consecutive win with partner Martina Hingis to storm into the women's doubles semifinals at the Australian Open. The top seeded Indo-Swiss duo defeated the German-American pair of Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Coco Vandeweghe 6-2 4-6 6-1. They will now play the 13th seeds Julia Goerges and Karolina Pliskova on Wednesday.
In the women's singles draw, much was made of the Serena Williams-Maria Sharapova quarterfinal clash, but it turned out to be damp squib: World No 1 Williams hardly missed a shot as she cruised to a crushing 6-4 6-1 win to set up a semifinal encounter with the fourth-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska. This was Williams' 18th straight win against Sharapova.
Over in the men's singles, Roger Federer set up a semi-final clash with either Novak Djokovic or Kei Nishikori. Facing the sixth seeded Tomas Berdych in the quarter-finals, FedEx shook off a difficult first set (7-6) to comfortably win the next two 6-2 6-4. He will be looking to win a record 18th Grand Slam title.
World No 2 Andy Murray will be up against David Ferrer in the other quarterfinal on Wednesday. The winner will face the victor of the match between Milos Raonic and Gael Monfils.
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