The quarter finals saw another highly ranked player defeated by a qualifier.
(Rank/Seed)
6/2 Kvitova moved into her second Sydney semi final in as many attempts, beating compatriot and friend Safarova 76(4) 62 for her 300th career win. In a battle between two big hitting lefties, neither player broke serve in the first set. However, Safarova was always under more pressure and despite saving 3 set points, couldn't contain Kvitova any longer. After the first set was won, Kvitova relaxed and broke Safarova's serve twice en route to yet another fine win. Overall, her serving was exemplary as she made 71% of her first serves and hit 8 aces, including one on her 4th match point. She hit 34 winners (Safarova hit 17) to only 21 unforced errors.
107/Q Pironkova, a former Wimbledon semi finalist, defeated (7/3) Errani 76(2) 63 out on sparsely populated Court One. The Bulgarian handled the occasion well despite missing out when serving for the set at 5-3 and then being forced to break to stay in it down 5-6. Even with the irritating sound of a bird mimicking a car alarm in the background, Pironkova surprisingly out-steadied her opponent with a mixture of sliced forehands and flat backhands to win 5 straight points from 2-2 in the tiebreak. Errani received treatment for a back ailment in the second set and though she closed the 4-1 gap to 4-3, never looked likely to change the tide, marking a second straight year in which she had lost in the quarterfinals. After a poor 2013, Pironkova moved into her first semi finals since Sofia, 2012.
9/5 Kerber continued her straight sets progress, beating Spaniard (16/-) Suarez Navarro 62 64 to move into a second straight semi here. A brief rain delay interrupted the first set but didn't stop Kerber's momentum as she won the set and went up a break in the second. However, Suarez Navarro promised to do better than their last encounter (when she only won a couple of games) as she found the rhythm on her trademark one handed backhand and went ahead 4-3. Still, having avenged her Wimbledon defeat against Kanepi a round earlier, she quickly went on to avenge her US Open defeat to Suarez Navarro too.
Elsewhere, (36/-) Keys continued her impressive run through to her second career semi final when compatriot Mattek Sands was forced to retire with Keys leading 3-2 due to a back injury. Keys had taken out in form but decidedly flat (11/7) Halep 61 64 in the first round.
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