Kvitova beat Sharapova to win her first grand slam title at Wimbledon last year, but she was out-fought in Melbourne by the Russian who won 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 to move into Saturday's decider against Belarusian Victoria Azarenka.
Despite a slow start to the match Kvitova dominated the second and third sets and had 14 chances to break Sharapova's serve, but she converted just three of them. Later she conceded she had let her opponent off the hook.
"She played some break points very well but I could have been more aggressive and go for the winners and not only waiting, waiting to see what she was going to do," Kvitova said.
The 21-year-old said if she had played against Sharapova the way she had played at Wimbledon there would have been a different outcome.
"It was grass there and here it's hardcourt, but still the game we are playing is the same," she said. "I mean, probably I played more aggressively at Wimbledon and didn't make a lot of mistakes like I did today."
The tall left-hander, who has been touted as one of the future stars of the women's game, had recovered from a poor serving display in the first set to dominate Sharapova with her swinging serves and booming ground-strokes.
In the crucial third set she never looked like losing her serve but she cracked at 4-5 to hand Sharapova the match.
Kvitova's loss means she can no longer end the tournament as the world number one, with the eventual champion set to succeed Caroline Wozniacki. But she said she would look back on the Australian Open with few regrets.
"Of course I'm disappointed right now. I mean if I look back, I don't know, in a week for example, it will be good tournament for me, first semifinal in the Australian Open," she said.
"But, you know, I fought and nothing, nothing at all. So I have to say that Maria played good tennis today. So now I'm really sad, but in the next days it will be fine."
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