Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova to meet in Brisbane
Maria Sharapova will continue her comeback from a shoulder injury against world number one Serena Williams in Friday's Brisbane International semis.
The Russian, 26, ended her 2013 season in August, but beat Kaia Kanepi 4-6 6-3 6-2 to make the last four.
Williams, who won 78 of her 82 matches last year, overcame ninth seed Dominika Cibulkova 6-3 6-3 in her quarter-final.
Sharapova's meeting with Williams will be the first since they appeared to criticise each other's personal lives.
| Williams | Sharapova | |
|---|---|---|
|
32 |
Age |
26 |
|
634 |
Career wins |
512 |
|
17 |
Grand Slam titles |
4 |
|
1 |
World ranking |
4 |
In an interview with
Rolling Stone magazine in June,
Williams criticised an unnamed top-five player for being boring in
her interviews and questioned the character of her boyfriend.
Sharapova, who is dating men's world number 23 Grigor Dimitrov,
responded by telling Williams
that she should restrict her comments to her own reported relationship with French coach Patrick Mouratoglou.
In December the four-time Grand Slam winner hinted at the continuing poor relationship between the pair when she said that, while she respected Williams on the court, it was "different" outside the sport.
Sharapova has not beaten Williams since 2004, has taken just one set in their past nine meetings and trails 14-2 in their career head-to-head record.
"I think I got to win a few times in order to call it rivalry," she admitted.
"I haven't had a lot of success against her in the past.
"It's the first tournament of the year. I came here wanting to play as many matches as I could and obviously wanting to play the best."
The tournament's other semi-final has also gone with seeding with Belarus's Victoria Azarenka meeting Serbia's Jelena Jankovic for a place in the final.
Second seed Azarenka overcame the loss of a second-set tie-break to see off Switzerland's Stefanie Vogele 6-4 6-7 (7-9) 6-1, while fourth seed Jankovic recovered to beat Germany's Angelique Kerber 6-7 (6-8) 6-3 6-1.
In the men's draw, home favourite Lleyton Hewitt, 32, overcame fifth seed Feliciano Lopez 7-5 6-3 to advance to the quarter-finals.
