Burgeoning superstar Petra Kvitova and glamorous Russian Maria Sharapova set up a hotly anticipated rematch of last year's Wimbledon decider in the Australian Open quarter-finals Wednesday. Kvitova, who enjoyed a breakthrough victory over Sharapova at Wimbledon in July, beat Italy's Sara Errani 6-4, 6-4, before Sharapova ended the fairytale run of 56th-ranked Ekaterina Makarova 6-2, 6-3 to reach the semi-finals.
Kvitova needed to call on all her resources to see off the tricky Errani, who troubled the world number two with her guile and deception. The 21-year-old Kvitova was always favoured to win against Errani, but the Italian fought all the way in the first set, using a variety of shots to disrupt the world number two.
Kvitova broke Errani three times in the first set but lost her serve twice herself as the Italian made up for a lack of power with superb court coverage and clever shot-making. The Czech won a tight first set in 53 minutes, but allowed Errani to skip away to a 4-1 lead before recovering to win the next five games in a row. "In the beginning I was a little nervous because I knew that everybody expected it will be an easy match," Kvitova said. "Probably I had in my head that it's a good draw, but Sara played very well. Kvitova is the first Czech woman to reach the Australian Open semis since Jana Novotna in 1991, and is now in the box seat to be the next women's number one, although Sharapova can also hit the top ranking if she lifts the trophy.
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