Serena serves up a storm!

The top players continue to play well in the first week of the new year.

(Rank/Seed)

1/1 Williams served faultlessly to defeat Slovakian, (23/9) Cibulkova 63 63 to win her 20th straight match and move into the Brisbane semi finals. She didn't drop a point on serve in the first set, despite some early problems on the return. She finished the match with 12 aces and 31 winners, to just 17 unforced errors. 

2/2 Azarenka ultimately subdued her very plucky Swiss opponent, Voegele 64 67(7) 61 to move into the Brisbane semi finals for a third time in as many attempts. Amazingly, Stefanie fought off 9 match points (3 down 4-5 and 5 during the tiebreak in the second set) as Azarenka imploded through nerves, often looking on the verge of tears and swearing rather obviously. Still, Voegele finally succumbed to Azarenka's excellently recomposed onslaught.

3/1 Li is still on track in Shenzhen, reaching the semi final after a 75 46 64 win against unorthodox Romanian, Niculescu, enacting revenge for her 64 60 defeat against Monica in their only previous meeting in Beijing 2011.

4/3 Sharapova lost a set for the first time in 3 meetings with Estonian, Kanepi before recovering to win 46 63 62. Maria was sloppy, hitting 33 winners but also 33 unforced errors, whilst her opponent couldn't maintain her high standards from the first set. With Serena up next, things look ominous for the Russian once again (she's lost the last 13 times to Serena since 2004!) 

8/4 Jankovic recovered brilliantly to defeat (9/5) Kerber 67(8) 63 61 to move into the Brisbane semi finals. The match was filled with typically tenacious defence and sudden, unlikely winners from both counterpunchers, but in the closing stages it was Jankovic who pulled away, often due to her punishing backhand return. This is further evidence that Jankovic is very confident once again as a top 10 player, considering she won only 3 games in her only previous meeting with the German in Copenhagen 2012. Up next is Azarenka, who she only just recently defeated at the WTA Championships.