Australian Open 2016, Serena Williams vs Agnieszka Radwanska: Where to watch live, preview and betting odds

Serena Williams will hope to move one step closer to the seventh Australian Open success of her illustrious singles career with a semi-final meeting against Agnieszka Radwanska in Melbourne on Thursday 28 January.

Where to watch

Williams vs Radwanska will take place before Johanna Konta's meeting with Angelique Kerber, with play scheduled to get under way no earlier than 2.30am GMT at the Rod Laver Arena. Live coverage can be found on Eurosport 1 and via the Eurosport player, while live scores and real-time updates will also feature on the official Australian Open website.

Preview

With the chance to match Steffi Graff's record of 22 grand slam singles titles this week, Williams continued one of the most desperately and consistently one-sided rivalries in modern sport with yet another victory over Maria Sharapova in the last eight. Not since a WTA Championship clash in Los Angeles 12 years ago has the world number one lost to that particular opponent and she secured an incredible 18th consecutive win 6-4, 6-1 despite initially struggling with dizziness following an earlier bout of food poisoning.

Williams, who won the Australian Open on five occasions between 2003-2010 before claiming a sixth title in a far more memorable clash with Sharapova last year, has yet to drop a set throughout the tournament and has quickly dispelled fears that she may not be in optimum condition to defend her crown after pulling out of the 2016 Hopman Cup due to knee inflammation.

After successfully negotiating a testing first-round tie against Camila Giorgi in what was her first competitive tour match for four months, the 34-year-old then had little trouble in cruising past each of Su-Wei Hsieh, Darya Kasatkina and Margarita Gasparyan, losing just eight games in total during those three contests.

Radwanska, meanwhile, is yet to triumph at a major tournament and has only reached one previous grand slam final. Having beaten the likes of Heather Watson, Maria Kirilenko and Kerber en route to the 2012 Wimbledon showpiece, the Krakow-born right-hander eventually lost to Williams in three sets at SW19. She has reached the last four of the Australian Open once before, in 2014, but was easily beaten by Russian Dominika Cibulkova.

Currently ranked at number four, Radwanska has won 18 singles tournaments in total but her only WTA win came at the Tour Finals last year, when she ousted Petra Kvitova on the hard courts of Singapore to lift the Billie Jean King Trophy. She travelled to Melbourne in a rich vein of form having won at the Shenzhen Open earlier in January, subsequently beating Christina McHale, Eugenie Bouchard, Monica Puig and Anna-Leda Friedsam en route to the quarter-finals before taking advantage of an error-strewn performance from 10th seed Carla Suarez Navarro to progress 6-1, 6-3.

What the players say

Serena Williams: "She got the better of me at Hopman Cup. It will be a good match. She's been playing really well towards the end of the year, and already this year she's been very consistent. She presents a completely different game, an extremely exciting game. So I think it will be a long match and it will be a good match to see where I am.

"I know Aga really well. Like I said on the court, she's a really nice girl. She goes out of her way to say hi. It's really cool. We always get along. Have some questions for her. She's great. Like I said, whoever wins, we both deserve to be in the final. If she wins, I'll be very happy for her. I'm sure she'll feel the same way."

Agnieszka Radwanska: "I think it's good, especially that I did semi-finals here and I won the tournament (Shenzhen) before. Couldn't be better so far.

"Hopefully I can play my best tennis or I'll be in trouble. Experience is very important in tennis. I'm happy to have that and I'll be ready for the semi."

Betting odds (source William Hill):

Serena Williams 1/7 vs Agnieszka Radwanska 9/2

Head-to-head record: Williams 8-0 Radwanska

Last meeting: Williams boasts an unbeaten record against Radwanska on the women's tour, with her last win coming in straight sets 6-2, 6-4 during round one of the WTA Championships in Istanbul (hard) back in 2013.

However, Radwanska did beat Williams 6-4, 6-7, 6-1 on Australian soil during the final of the 2015 Hopman Cup in Perth (hard). She saw her off again alongside Jerzy Janowicz in the mixed doubles as Poland claimed their maiden title with a 7-5, 6-3 triumph to take the overall match 2-1.