4 January 2013 | Tennis Queensland

Tickets are still available for this weekend’s sessions on Pat Rafter Arena, featuring some of the tournament’s marquee matches and giving Brisbane fans a rare glimpse at the world’s best on opposite sides of the net.

The night session has on offer the blockbuster rivalry between world no.1 Victoria Azarenka and her unassailable opponent Serena Williams—something few tennis fans around the world get the chance to see, let alone in a semifinal. 

Azarenka, who landed her maiden Grand Slam singles crown in Melbourne last summer, finished the year as the top-ranked woman, but her 2012 nemesis, Serena Williams, who beat the Belarusian four times last year and holds an incredible 11-1 winning record, stands in her path to the final tonight.

In typical Brisbane International fashion the other women’s semi tonight features a clash of the unseeded up-and-comers, former fifth-seed here Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who has taken out former champion Petra Kvitova and fourth seed Angelique Kerber en route to the semifinal, against the incredible story of lucky loser Lesia Tsurenko.

The Ukrainian took advantage of the withdrawal of Maria Sharapova, beating last year’s finalist Daniela Hantuchova in the quarterfinal and challenging for a fairytale spot in the women’s final.

The day session is a battle of the young and old in the men’s draw, kicking off with Cypriot crowd favourite Marcos Baghdatis bidding for his first semifinal at the Brisbane International against fleet-footed third seed Gilles Simon, who has flown as effortlessly under the radar this week as he does on court.

Last year’s finalist Alexandr Dolgopolov will have a challenge on his hands in the following match against flighty world no.19 Kei Nishikori, who is ranked just one spot below him in the rankings and won the pair’s only meeting back in 2011. Dolgopolov will have to pull off all the shot’s in his entertaining repertoire to overcome the Japanese rising star.

Ending the day session is last year’s Brisbane International winner—along with gongs at the London Olympics and the US Open—Andy Murray, who after sweating it out against Aussie John Millman last night will face off against big-serving Uzbek Denis Istomin for a spot in the semifinal.

Tickets are available via Ticketek.