Radwanska soars in Sydney, Ferrer struts in NZ

Deja vu

Although Radwanska has had a busy schedule, Li was clearly tired after playing nine times in 10 days as well as flying from China to Australia after winning last week's Shenzhen Open.

The Pole broke on Li's first service game and rarely looked back before stuttering to close out the match as she had in beating Yanina Wickmayer in Auckland last week.

"It was kind of like a deja vu from Auckland final," she said. "I'm really ready for the Australian Open. I will do of course everything to win that match tomorrow as well, and we'll see. I hope to win 16 matches in a row."

Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia serves to Angelique Kerber of Germany during their women's singles semifinal match at the Sydney International tennis tournament, Jan 10, 2013. [Photo/Agencies]

Cibulkova added world number five Kerber to her list of top 10 victims in Sydney this week having already beaten Petra Kvitova and Sara Errani.

Like Hewitt, Australian young gun Bernard Tomic proved he was a player to be avoided in Friday's draw for the Australian Open with a quarterfinal victory.

The 20-year-old came from a set down to beat defending champion Jarkko Nieminen 6-7 6-4 6-2 and extend his winning streak to five matches this year, including his stunning victory over Novak Djokovic in Perth last week.

Bernard Tomic of Australia hits a return to Jarkko Nieminen of Finland during their men's singles match at the Sydney International tennis tournament, Jan 10, 2013. [Photo/Agencies]

"I'm really confident now, and I got a shot to get into the final for the first time in my career," said Tomic, who will play Andreas Seppi in the semifinals after the Italian third seed beat Marcel Granollers 6-4 7-5.

Frenchman Julien Benneteau earlier cruised past American qualifier Ryan Harrison 6-4 6-2 and will play Kevin Anderson for a place in the final after the South African had an equally emphatic 6-4 6-3 win over Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan.

Men's top seed John Isner, who lost to Harrison on Wednesday, pulled out of the Australian Open on Thursday because of a knee injury, leaving Sam Querrey as the only American men's seed at Melbourne Park.

Querrey overcame Canada's Jesse Levine 6-4 7-6 in Auckland and will face Philipp Kohlschreiber in the semifinals after the German beat Xavier Malisse 7-6 6-4.