MELBOURNE, Australia — Kim Clijsters is moving on, and Caroline Wozniacki is moving out of the top spot.
Clijsters continued her Australian Open title defense with a 6-3, 7-6 (4) quarterfinal win that will cost Wozniacki the No. 1 ranking.
The four-time major winner next plays third-seeded Victoria Azarenka, who had a 6-7 (0), 6-0, 6-2 win over No. 8 Agnieszka Radwanska earlier today to move into the semifinals of a Grand Slam for the second time.
Azarenka is one of three players who can pass Wozniacki, who needed to reach the semifinals to retain the top ranking.
The 21-year-old Danish player has finished the past two years at No. 1 but has never won a major, prompting criticism of how the ranking system works.
Clijsters has slipped to No. 14 since beating Li Na in the last Australian final, losing in the second round at the French Open and then missing the next two majors because of injuries.
She also had a roller-coaster ride into the Australian Open semis for the seventh time after spraining her ankle and having to save four match points in a fourth-round win over Li.
Clijsters and Wozniacki both started nervously, with three service breaks to start the match. But the 28-year-old Belgian dictated play from her first hold in the fourth game until she was serving for the match at 5-3 in the second.
She had the rally on her racket at 30-30 but let her guard down and allowed Wozniacki back into the match. Wozniacki won the next two points to break Clijsters, and then held to get it back on level terms.
Clijsters had never lost any of her eight previous tiebreakers at Melbourne Park, and she hit a backhand down the line to take a 5-4 lead. She set up double match point with a cross-court forehand winner and sealed it with a volley.
“It definitely didn’t feel like being up a set and 5-2,” Clijsters said. “I had to work really hard for it. Caroline is a great fighter.
“I was happy to get through, and not in a three-setter because it’s so hot,” she said.
The crowd at Rod Laver Arena was solidly behind Clijsters from the start, shouting “C’mon Kimmie” in between nearly every point and cheering when Wozniacki missed.
One group of Belgian fans had painted their faces in the red, yellow and black colors of the flag. They stood and chanted for Clijsters when she broke Wozniacki to win the first set.
Four-time Australian Open champion Roger Federer had the next scheduled match against U.S. Open champion Juan Martin del Potro. No. 2-ranked Rafael Nadal played Tomas Berdych later.
Five-time champion Serena Williams is already out of the tournament. Her 17-match winning streak at the Australian Open ended in a 6-2, 6-3 loss to No. 56-ranked Ekaterina Makarova.
The margin equaled the biggest Grand Slam defeat of Williams’ 17-year career.
Makarova will face three-time major winner Maria Sharapova in an all-Russian quarterfinal.
Sharapova rallied past Sabine Lisicki, 3-6, 6-2, 6-3, before defending men’s champion Novak Djokovic fended off a resurgent Lleyton Hewitt in a dramatic last match of the day, winning 6-1, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3.
Djokovic had won 23 straight sets at Melbourne Park before he suddenly wobbled against Hewitt, a two-time Grand Slam champion who has slipped to No. 181 in the rankings after a series of injuries.
Next up for Djokovic is fifth-seeded David Ferrer of Spain, who had a surprisingly easy 6-4, 6-4, 6-1 win over Richard Gasquet.
SOLE SISTERS
Ana Ivanovic and Caroline Wozniacki share a sporting interest outside tennis.
Both date professional golfers — Ivanovic is involved with Australia’s Adam Scott; Wozniacki with Rory McIlroy, the Northern Irishman who won the last U.S. Open.
Ivanovic has been with Scott for a while, spending the last couple of offseasons in Australia, so had some advice when Wozniacki came asking about the traps of dating a golfer.
“She did ask me like what kind of shoes should I take to walk on the course,” Ivanovic said after her fourth-round loss to Petra Kvitova on Monday, when Scott was in the crowd at Rod Laver Arena. The answer, for the record: “Just the most comfortable ones.”
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