MELBOURNE, Australia — As it turned out, an Australian Open semifinal was not Maria Sharapova’s toughest all-Russian match in Melbourne this year.
That came in the second round, when she had to summon all her tennis survival instincts to save two match points before holding off her little-known compatriot Alexandra Panova.
“This is unacceptable,” Sharapova’s father, Yuri, told her in a telephone call, according to Sharapova.
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“Obviously, they’re both big parts of my life,” Sharapova said of Russia and the United States before the semifinal. “I spent my childhood in Russia. I live in the United States, where I am very comfortable and very happy. I know both cultures extremely well. At the end of the day, I’m very happy to be representing Russia.
“It’s more of a feeling than anything else. I have a lot of family back home, you know, that I see and speak to quite often during the year. Despite not living there, I have a very strong connection to the country. But yet I’m very happy when I’m able to go to the United States.”
A version of this article appears in print on January 29, 2015, on page B13 of the New York edition with the headline: Sharapova Breezes Past Compatriot to Advance to Final. Order Reprints| Today’s Paper|Subscribe
