Wimbledon: Radwanska and Kerber into last four

ANGELIQUE Kerber has followed up her impressive straight-sets victory over Kim Clijsters on Monday with a victory in three sets over fellow German Sabine Lisicki to reach her first Wimbledon semi-final.

The 24-year-old Kerber has enjoyed a remarkable turnaround in fortunes since being beaten by Laura Robson in the first round at Wimbledon last year. She made it to the semi-finals of the US Open shortly afterwards and has now beaten the No 15 seed at Wimbledon, who herself eliminated the No 1 seed Maria Sharapova earlier this week.

Kerber, who won 6-3, 6-7, 7-5, will meet Agnieszka Radwanska in the last four tomorrow, after she beat Maria Kirilenko 7-5, 6-4, 7-5. That match was suspended during the third set with the score locked at 4-4 after two lengthy rain delays, but shortly after 9pm the players were summoned back on court to complete the match, and Radwanska proved the stronger.

Kerber will need all the recovery time she can get after yesterday’s epic battle against Lisicki. Kerber held two match points at 5-4 in the second set but failed to make either count. She then did not capitalise on another match point in the tie-break of the same set, meaning that fans on Centre Court were treated to a deciding set, where there were six breaks of serve in 11 games before Kerber won through to claim her fifth win in five meetings against Lisicki.

“I just had to forget about the match points and concentrate on what I had to do right now,” said Kerber later. “But it was not easy. She played very well in the important moments.”

Second-ranked Victoria Azarenka set up a semi-final against Serena Williams by beating unseeded Tamira Paszek of Austria 6-3, 7-6.

Azarenka was broken for the first time when leading 5-4 in the second set. She broke right back and took her second match point in the tiebreaker when Paszek sent a backhand long.

Australian Open champion Azarenka will take the No 1 ranking from Maria Sharapova if she reaches the final.