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Giorgi, belying her ranking of 100th in the
world, beat U.S. Open champion Sloane Stephens in the first
round and then ousted twice Wimbledon and former Sydney champion
Petra Kvitova.
She is yet to drop a set over six matches in qualifying or the
main draw and will next meet world number 22 Kerber who staged a
6-3 6-1 victory over Dominika Cibulkova in the last eight.
Former world number one Kerber fell out of the top 20 last year
but has made a strong start to the year ahead of next week's
Australian Open with victories over Lucie Safarova and Venus
Williams this week.
"I'm not looking back 2017 any more," Kerber, who won the
Australian Open and the U.S. Open titles in 2016, said.
"I've had a great off-season and I'm working hard. I'm trying to
do my best on court and win as many matches before going to
Melbourne.
"It's just the beginning of the year. I'm trying to play my game
again, enjoy every minute on court. I'm trying to be aggressive
and play like I did the year before last."
The other semi-final in Sydney will be an all-Australian affair
between Ashleigh Barty and Daria Gavrilova.
Barty completed a confident 6-3 6-2 victory over Czech Barbora
Strycova, while Gavrilova advanced after her last-eight opponent
Garbine Muguruza withdrew due to a leg injury.
"I think it's amazing for Sydney and for Australian tennis –
we're gonna have an Aussie in the final, which is awesome,"
Barty said after her win at the Ken Rosewall Arena.
"Dash and I know each other very well so hopefully we can play
some good tennis."
(Reporting by Sudipto Ganguly in Mumbai; editing by Pritha
Sarkar)
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