Tennis

2014 Australian Open TV coverage and schedule for Thursday’s matches

The semifinals are set to begin at the 2014 Australian Open.

Jan 22, 2014, 7:01 PM UTC

Quinn Rooney

The 2014 Australian Open is nearing its end, and things look much different now than we thought they would at the beginning. Both Serena Williams and Novak Djokovic -- the No. 1 seed for the women and No. 2 seed for the men -- have been eliminated, and Wednesday’s matches (Tuesday night for those in the U.S.) saw women’s No. 2 Victoria Azarenka eliminated at the hands of No. 5 seed Agnieszka Radwanska.

Thursday’s matches will get started, as usual, late on Wednesday in American time zones. Both of the women’s semifinal matchups will be on Thursday, and one half of the men’s semifinals will be as well. The other half of the men’s semifinals will be on Friday, with the women’s final on Saturday and the men’s final on Sunday.

First up will be the match between women’s No. 4 seed Na Li and No. 30 seed Eugenie Bouchard. Li took down Flavia Pennetta (No. 28) in the quarterfinals, while Bouchard bested No. 14 Ana Ivanovic, who had eliminated Williams the previous round.

Then, the two women who were victorious on Wednesday will be in action late, as Radwanska takes on No. 20 Dominika Cibulkova. It should be a good match given that Cibulkova eliminated the No. 16, No. 11 and No. 3 seeds in this tournament to this point.

For the men, the first semifinal will get underway as No. 7 Tomas Berdych takes on No. 8 Stanislas Wawrinka. Most felt that Djokovic had the easiest path to the semifinals of the top seeds, but Wawrinka took him to the brink in the quarterfinals, winning in five sets. Berdych was able to down No. 3 seed David Ferrer in four sets.

As usual, ESPN will carry the television coverage on the day. The women’s semifinals will begin at 9:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday on ESPN2. That will run through 2 a.m., at which point coverage will switch to ESPN at 3:30 through 6 a.m. for the men’s semifinal matchup. The Tennis Channel will have coverage from 7 p.m. through 9:30 p.m.