Betting tips / Andy Morris / 24 January 2012 / Leave a comment Bet Now View Market

While Andy Morris doesn't see Eastern Europe as a hotbed of tennis, there's a place in the women's semi-finals up for grabs for two of its leading lights on Tuesday at the Australian Open.

Third seed Victoria Azarenka does battle with Polish eighth seed Agnieszka Radwanska on Rod Laver Arena in what could turn out to be a tight encounter.

Azarenka has come through comfortably so far, not dropping a single set.

Indeed, in her first two matches she lost only two games in total.

But she has not had a major test yet, with Iveta Benesova of the Czech Republic being brushed aside fairly easily in the fourth round.

She has made the quarter-finals once before, in 2010, but a hugely encouraging 2011, in which she reached the last eight in the French Open and the semis at Wimbledon, has raised expectations she can kick on this year.

There were warning signs early on in the tournament for Radwanska, who lost the opening set of her first round match against American Bethanie Mattek-Sands. But she put that behind her and this is her third time in the quarter-finals, which should stand her in good stead.

Azarenka beat her close friend in Sydney in the build-up to the Australian Open.

That should be a good guide to how things will turn out in the quarter final today.