Agnieszka Radwanska ends Victoria Azarenka’s reign in Melbourne, reaches Australian Open semifinals

Two-time defending champion Victoria Azarenka crashed out of the AUstralian Open 2014 in the quarterfinal stage after the Belarussian was upstaged by Polish world number five Agnieszka Radwanska 6-1, 5-7, 6-0. This means that there will be a first-time Australian Open champion by the end of the week.

Radwanska will next face 20th-seed Dominika Cibulkova after the latter routed 11th-seed Simona Halep of Romania 6-3, 6-0.

“She was aggressive. She was making everything. She was guessing right,” Azarenka said of Radwanska. “I was just playing a little bit too predictably.

“In the second set I managed to fight back. Third set, the first game was important. I let it go, like easily let it go. From there just couldn’t get back to it. It was tough.”

Radwanska, who has not defeated Azarenka in their past seven matches, wanted to win badly.

“I said to myself one day I have to have one step forward and do the semifinal, and I’m so, so happy that I did it finally,” Radwanska said.

“I just had to play my best tennis, even better and play aggressive and go for every shot I could,” she added.