YESTERDAY’S two quarter final winners in the women’s singles of the Australian Open had two very contrasting days.

19th seed Madison Keys was on court for almost two hours, but ultimately came back from a set down to beat Elina Svitolina 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Keys served double the number of aces that Svitolina did (six to three), and although had only one percent more of her first serves in than the Ukrainian, she had a decisively better percentage of wins off her first serve, to the tune of five percent. Interestingly though, Keys did much better in the winners category (49 to 20) and return winners (five to zero), but also finished with significantly more unforced errors (41 to 15).

Keys is about to play the seventh Grand Slam semi final of her career and third at Melbourne Park from the 11 trips she has made to Melbourne, but knows that all that experience will not be the only thing she needs to get the win.

“This is really what they call the business end of the tournament,” said Keys.

“As much as you have experience in all of that, at the end of the day …  you just have to go out and do your best and leave it all out there.

“As long as I can do that, no matter what happens, then I can walk away with my head held high.”

Yesterday’s other quarter final winner was Iga Swiatek, who although played her longest match of her tournament so far in that quarter final win, was still only on court for just under an hour and a half on her way to a 6-1, 6-2 win over Emma Navarro.

The pair’s contrasting paths to the quarter finals was perhaps evident early when Swiatek broke Navarro to love in the opening game, and that was a sign of things to come.

Although Navarro’s first serve in percentage was 10% better than Swiatek’s, Swiatek won a significantly higher percentage of points off her first serve than Navarro did (82% to 49%). The Pole also finished with seven more winners than the American, and converted 56% of her break points, while Navarro could not convert any.

Swiatek now turns her focus to facing Keys in tonight’s semi final, and although she has beaten Keys in four of their five previous meetings, she is aware of the power her opponent possesses.

“She likes to also play intense and pretty fast … I need to be ready for that and be proactive and also good in defence” Swiatek said.