BRISBANE: Russia’s Maria Sharapova and Ana Ivanovic of Serbia won their semifinals at the Brisbane International on Friday to set up a highly-anticipated showdown in the lead-up to this month’s Australian Open.

Sharapova beat the talented Ukrainian Elina Svitolina 6-1 6-3 to reach the final without dropping a set while Ivanovic battled her way to a 7-6(2) 6-4 victory over American Varvara Lepchenko.

Sharapova beat Ivanovic in the 2008 Australian Open final and both women are in devastating form heading toward the first grand slam of the season, starting in Melbourne on Jan. 19.

Sharapova has dropped just nine games in her three matches to get to the final and showed no mercy against Svitolina, a rising star who won the 2010 junior French Open, as she reached her 56th WTA final.

In the men’s section, Swiss great Roger Federer steamrolled his way into the semifinals with a 39-minute demolition of Australian wildcard James Duckworth on Friday.

Federer barely raised a sweat as he won 6-0, 6-1, a total transformation from the player almost eliminated by unknown Australian John Millman on Thursday night.

Federer will now play fourth seed Grigor Dimitrov in the semifinals following the Bulgarian’s solid 6-3, 6-4 win over Slovakian Martin Klizan.

Second seed Kei Nishikori underlined how far he has progressed over the past 12 months with a 58-minute win over Australian hope Bernard Tomic.

Nishikori, who finished 2014 as world number five, raced through the first set in only 21 minutes.

Tomic recovered and put up a fight in the second, but Nishikori broke at 4-4 then comfortably held serve to book his place in the semifinals.

Nishikori will take on Canada’s Milos Raonic for a place in Sunday’s final.

Third-seeded Raonic won the battle of the big servers when he downed Australian Sam Groth 7-6 (7/5), 3-6, 7-6 (7/2).

Groth outserved Raonic, with 22 aces to 15, and won more points overall, 99 to 95, but the Canadian was steadier in the two tiebreaks to clinch victory in two hours.

Wozniacki, Venus in final

In Auckland, Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki and the evergreen Venus Williams won their semifinals at the Auckland Classic on Friday to set up a final showdown between two former world number ones.

Wozniacki advanced to her 38th WTA career final with a hard-fought 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory over Czech Barbora Zahlavova Strycova.

Then Williams, showing few signs of slowing down at the age of 34, joined her in Saturday’s title match with a 6-0, 6-3 win romp over fellow American Lauren Davis.

For Williams, who lost last year’s Auckland final to Ana Ivanovic, it marks her 76th appearance in a final. Already the sixth oldest woman to claim a title after she won in Dubai last year, if she wins she will become the fourth oldest champion.

Qualifier Bedene enters Chennai semis

In Chennai, Slovenian qualifier Aljaz Bedene continued his giant-slaying streak in the ATP Chennai Open as he cruised into the semifinals with a three-set win over fifth seed Guillermo Garcia-Lopez on Friday.

Bedene, ranked 156th in the world, came from behind to knock out No. 36 Garcia-Lopez 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 after a two-hour slugfest on an outside court of the Nungambakkam tennis stadium.

The London-based Bedene, who hopes to become a British citizen this month, had stunned second seed Feliciano Lopez in the second round on Thursday.

In Saturday’s semifinal, Bedene meets Spanish third seed Roberto Bautista-Agut who beat Yen-Hsun Lu of Taiwan 7-6 (9/7), 6-4.

The other semifinal will feature defending champion and world number four Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland against fourth seed David Goffin of Belgium.

Top-seeded Wawrinka, preparing to defend his Australian Open title later this month, ousted the big-serving Gilles Muller of Luxembourg 6-2, 7-6 (7/4) in a center court quarter-final.

Goffin, who rose from 110 to number 22 last year after battling back from a wrist injury, outplayed Andreas Haider-Maurer of Austria 7-5, 6-2 in an hour and 11 minutes.