Our busy tennis fan and loyal contributor Omair has already provided us with a preview of the first Australian Open semifinal on the schedule, the one between Victoria Azarenka and Kim Clijsters, and now let's see Omair's preview of the semifinal clash between Petra Kvitova and Maria Sharapova.

When Kvitova and Sharapova meet for their semifinal, a lot of things will be out there on the line. They are both aware that whoever emerges victorious out of this encounter will keep alive her hope of attaining the top spot. Whoever wins the Australian Open other than Kim Clijsters will be the world No.1 when the rankings are released on Monday.

Sharapova has so far made it to the semifinals of the Australian Open four times (excluding this year's result), and has gone to the final twice. The two times she lost in the semis it was in three sets: in 2005 to eventual champion Serena Williams and in 2006 to Justine Henin. Will she make it to the finals this time and keep her hopes of regaining the top spot alive or will she bow out to the Czech power tower Kvitova?

As for Kvitova, this is her third Grand Slam semifinal and her first at the Australian Open. How will she fare in Melbourne? She obviously has the experience of playing and winning at the biggest stages of tennis, so she will not be fazed by the stage tomorrow. Read more »

Semifinals are set at the Australian Open and the first one on schedule is Victoria Azarenka vs. Kim Clijsters. Our favorite stats analyst, Omair, was so grateful to provide us with his previews of both the semifinal encounters. Let's  start with the Azarenka vs. Clijsters one.

Azarenka comes into this match knowing that she is one of the two players who have beaten Clijsters twice since she came out of retirement, the other player being Vera Zvonareva, if I am not wrong. Azarenka comes into this match knowing that she won her last match against Clijsters, in straight sets. She comes into this match knowing that the top spot is up for grabs and she will have a huge chance if she stops Clijsters – after all there will be no better way to justify her top spot (if she attains it) than by beating Clijsters in the semis, and then either Maria Sharapova or Petra Kvitova in the finals.

Clijsters comes into this match knowing that this is the last Australian Open of her career, and she intends to go out in style which she showed in her match against Li Na and then against Caroline Wozniacki. Read more »

Petra Kvitova defeated Sara Errani 6-4 6-4 in the Australian Open quarterfinals, but before previewing her semi against Maria Sharapova, our stats pro Omair is giving us a closer look at the numbers behind her victory in the final eight. As an introduction, you can check out our yesterday's quarterfinal preview.

Kvitova took the Rod Laver Arena today knowing that she must get to the semifinals in order to have a shot at the top spot, since her rival Victoria Azarenka had already moved to the semifinals. I guess, that was what motivated Kvitova to come out of the 4-1 deficit and defeat Errani in straight sets.

Errani entered the Rod Laver Arena today knowing well that if she gets past Kvitova today, she will not only end Kvitova's dream of attaining the top spot and winning another major but will also become the first Italian ever to reach the Australian Open semifinals.

Errani fought well, but by the end Kvitova's fire was more than Errani could handle. Her brave play, aided by Kvitova's errors, saw her move ahead to 4-1 in the second set, but only for Kvitova to regroup and win five straight games from there on to put an end to Errani's dream of being the first ever Italian to reach Aussie Open semis. Read more »

Our stats expert Omair was again busy and prepared post-match analytics of the Australian Open quarterfinals whose previews he presented yesterday. Let's first see how the numbers look for the quarterfinal in which Maria Sharapova defeated fellow Russian Ekaterina Makarova 6-2 6-3.

Maria Sharapova took the Rod Laver Arena today with a purpose on her mind, she wanted to prove her doubters wrong, she wanted to show that she too can be a title threat without any match play before the Grand Slam event. She had every reason to be confident when she took the Rod Laver Arena, for she has never lost in the quarterfinals here at Melbourne.

Coming into today's match Sharapova was four out of four in her previous quarterfinals here at Melbourne and she kept that record intact by making it five out of five through to the semifinals.

When Makarova took the court today she had every reason to feel confident. She had beaten Vera Zvonareva in the third round and then topped it off by beating five-time Aussie Open champion Serena Williams in the fourth round. However, that did not help her much against Sharapova, and that did not intimidate Sharapova, who easily breezed past Makarova to book a semifinal clash with Kvitova.

Let us see what the numbers tell us:

Makarova could not keep the level up and going against Sharapova her first serve winning percentage fell. Still, more alarming was her winning percentage on the second serve that fell dramatically to 36%. If that was not enough she could not win points on Sharapova's serve as well, which is considered to be a liability in Sharapova's game. Her winning percentage on receiving points was only 36%. You can never win against Sharapova by winning only 36% of your second serves and 36% of the receiving points. Read more »

Most of you guys have been watching the Australian Open over the last couple of days and hopefully you are excited to get on the tennis court yourselves. In order to help you with your own game, our loyal reader and contributor Florian from OnlineTennisInstruction.com has put together a series of free tennis video tips and decided to promote them on Women's Tennis Blog. Check out his sample video tip below and feel free to tell him your thoughts in the comments and of course if you like the tip sign up to his newsletter to receive more free video tips.

The video tips are meant to be actionable and effective in a short period of time.

Florian says:

Tennis video instruction is helping tennis players all over the world now get a better idea of what they need to do in order to improve and I am excited to be a part of it!

Here is one of his free video tips:

In the Top5 video series, all four areas of the game are covered. There are tips for:

• Improving your groundstrokes and missing less on the net;
• Developing a better service motion;
• Playing smarter and hitting to the right targets;
• Developing more efficient footwork;
• Improving your mental game.

I spent the past 10 years of my life coaching and researching how tennis players can improve and what I found is that most players get stuck at a certain level and often remain there for the rest of their tennis career. Usually they lack the right information to take their game to the next level and my goal with OnlineTennisInstruction.com is to close that gap. – says Florian.

OnlineTennisInstruction.com is a website focused on helping tennis players improve their game. Florian also writes about current events in pro tennis on his blog and recently had a guest post here where he provided us with his Australian Open preview. Visit his website to get more tennis tips.