MELBOURNE, Australia — Serena Williams advanced to the semifinals of the Australian Open, overcoming a sluggish start today and a back-and-forth third set to beat Shahar Peer 3-6, 6-2, 8-6.
Williams has won five straight matches for the first time since she won the last of her seven Grand Slam singles titles here two years ago.
Also advancing to the semifinals today was 17-year-old Nicole Vaidisova, the women's 10th seed; and Andy Roddick, the men's sixth seed. Roddick beat fellow American Mardy Fish 6-2, 6-2, 6-2.
"I am the ultimate competitor," Williams said after her match. "I feel awesome. I'm excited to be out here. … I'm just so happy to be back out here competing."
Williams, 25, dropped her first service game and was down the break for the rest of the first set, fending off a set point in the eighth game and two more in the ninth before Peer won it with a big first serve.
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Peer, 19, had only lost one point on her own serve in the second set until 30-love in the sixth game, when Williams scored four straight points to go ahead 4-2.
The first four games of the deciding set took 34 minutes — four minutes longer than the entire second set — with Williams saving break points in the first and third games and then breaking the 16th-seeded Peer in the fourth.
But just when the former No. 1 seemed to have the match under control, Peer broke and got back on serve.
Williams faced double-break point in the ninth game, saving both with aces and then closing for a 5-4 lead with another down the middle.
Peer broke again in the 11th game and was serving for the match before Williams broke back and then held at love for a 7-6 lead.
After the changeover, Williams broke serve again, winning on her first match point when Peer curled a backhand out after 2 hours 34 minutes.
Williams next plays Vaidisova, who beat fellow Czech Lucie Safarova 6-1, 6-4 earlier today to reach her second Grand Slam semifinal.
Safarova had ousted defending champion Amelie Mauresmo in the fourth round.
"It's great for Czech tennis to have two in the quarterfinals, one in the semis," the 10th-seeded Vaidisova said. "Of course you don't want to play your friend, but I'm just happy to get through."
On Monday, Rafael Nadal worked well past midnight to beat Andy Murray.
For four sets there was little to separate the two. But Nadal outlasted the 19-year-old Scotsman, twice rallying from a set down to win 6-7 (3), 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 and reach the Australian Open quarterfinals. The match ended at 1:50 a.m.
Nadal, who has been ranked No. 2 to Federer every week since July 2005, had to fend off 10 break points in the last two sets as Murray's calculated, all-or-nothing game started failing in the almost four-hour match.
Top-seeded Maria Sharapova beat No. 22 Vera Zvonareva 7-5, 6-4 and will play another Russian in the quarterfinal after 12th-seeded Ana Chakvetadze beat No. 8 Patty Schnyder 6-4, 6-1.
"I thought I played a lot better today than in the previous rounds," Sharapova said. "But I will definitely have to step it up again."
Today
• What: Australian Open
• TV: 1 p.m. tape delayed on ESPN2; 8 p.m. live on ESPN2; 1:30 a.m. Wednesday live on ESPN
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