Australian Open 2012 live stream

Agnieszka Radwanska’s been known to admit the Australian Open is her favourite tournament to play and there’s a good reason for her to be of that opinion.

The Australian Open has been kind to Radwanska. It’s here at Melbourne Park in 2008 she experienced Grand Slam quarterfinal status for the first time. Now she’s into her third Australian Open quarterfinal – second straight – and fifth Grand Slam quarterfinal overall with her 2008-09 Wimbledon final eight finishes.

Radwanska arrived in Melbourne following a semifinal showing at the Sydney tournament. While she lost a tough three-setter there to Victoria Azarenka – who will be her quarterfinal opponent here – Radwanska did secure her first victory over a reigning No.1 when she upset Caroline Wozniacki in the Sydney quarterfinals.

Coming into 2011, Radwanska was ranked No.14 and had not won a tournament since 2008. She concluded 2011in the top 10 tipping the ranking charts at No.8, and won three titles – Carlsbad, Tokyo and Beijing – with the latter two tournaments running consecutively. She also reached two semifinals, five quarterfinals and two fourth-rounders last year. Her results qualified the Polish player for the year-end WTA Championships where she didn’t make it out of the round-robin portion of the event.

The eighth seed here, Radwanska’s first-round match provided a good fight before she ousted American Bethanie Mattek-Sands in three sets. But her last three encounters have been straight-sets victories, and the latest against 22nd seed Julia Goerges surprisingly provided little to no competition.

Goerges, who was playing in her first Grand Slam fourth round, looked miles away from the court during the 54-minute match, which Radwanska won 6-1, 6-1. The German won only 22 points in the match, was able to get only 43 percent of her first serves in play, and only won four of 15 points on the first serves that went in play. She didn’t do much better on her second serve, only winning seven of 20 of those serves that were playable.

For Goerges, the match summed up as just a really bad day at the office.

“I think nothing happened,” she said, offering a weak smile. “It was one of those days where really nothing worked. No balls went in. So it’s pretty tough when you go for your shots and miss them most of the time – almost all.”

Radwanska had never played against Goerges before the match on Sunday. But knowing that the German was No.23 in the world, won the Stuttgart title last season and also claimed a victory over the No.1 Wozniacki in that Stuttgart final, she expected Goerges’s game to be more gorgeous than what she saw.

“To be honest, I really expected much longer match, much tougher,” Radwanska said. “I was just playing very good from the beginning until the end, and I was just focused on my game from the first point.”

While Radwanska did play well, Goerges played badly. She won 72 per cent of her first-serve points that went in and 67 per cent of her second-serve points that went in play. While Radwanska’s serve was broken once, in the fourth game of the second set, she capably blasted her way to six service breaks in nine break-point opportunities Goerges presented.

Radwanska’s road to scoring a first Grand Slam semifinal berth will be tough against Azarenka, a close childhood friend and junior nemesis. The two 22-year-olds have a long history together, including Azarenka’s semifinal win at Sydney last week.

“It’s a very good feeling that you can see the same faces [from] like the under-14, under-12, and now in the top 10 and in the quarterfinals in the Grand Slam,” said Radwanska, of her familiarity with Azarenka.

Radwanska’s not the only one looking forward to the quarterfinal encounter. Azarenka is hoping to duplicate her Sydney result here to reach her second career semifinal at a major – she was a semifinalist at Wimbledon last year.

“We had so many great matches, long matches, long rallies,” Azarenka said. “I’m sure it’s going to happen again. But I think she’s improved tremendously since the end of last year. You could see the difference. She became more aggressive. She improved her serve.

“It’s going to be a really tough battle. Mentally it’s difficult. She’s a very difficult player to play against. I’m going to be out there trying my best and fight hard.”

Once the quarterfinals start, the two top 10 stars will be looking for blood out there. But once the match is over, no matter who wins and who loses, things will go back to normal, according to Radwanska.

“Of course we’re friends, but we are both professionals,” said Radwanska, of her relationship with Azarenka. “So when you go on the court, we are just doing our best and everything to win the match.

“And, of course, after the match we shaking hands and friends again.”