This is the never ending story of 2012 in the WTA circuit.
The two players have had many clashes inside and outside the court .
Radwanska is having a very good season to grab the 3rd spot in the WTA ranking and she lost only to Azarenka this year (5 times!). But this time on the blue clay she may have some advantages due to her tennis variations and some discomfort for Azarenka.
Let’s see how they got into the semis.
AZARENKA – LI NA 3-6 6-3 6-3
Vika had to fight to recover from one set down against Li Na that was producing quite a solid tennis playing a sort of waiting game (a tactict that works on this surface if the opponent is not comfortable with the clay).
Li Na managed also to take an important break in the beginning of the second set, but then the world nr.1 got back to her usual blasting tennis to win the set 6-3 and to grab an important 4-0 led in the third.
The Chinese showed once again her never die attitude to crawl back to a 4-3 scoreline, but then it was the time for Vika to fend off the opponent offensive and win the set 6-3.
“It wasn’t very much to do with confidence,” said Azarenka. “I was thinking I had to change and come up with things to surprise her because she was playing unbelievable in the first set. I had to turn something around. I don’t know if it was confidence, or belief, or whether it was just pushing myself to be better.”
(Not) talking about the blue clay “I see no reason to talk about the courts until after the event,” Azarenka said. “These are the conditions we have to deal with.”
RADWANSKA – LEPCHENKO 6-4 6-4
Agnieszka didn’t miss the opportunity to defeat the America qualifier and she did it in straight sets (as expected) in 1h and 43m. The Pole has to revise a bit her service game. A compartment to have a look at is the second service where she won only 38% of the points.
Will Radwanska finally defeat Azarenka for the first time this year?
Looking forward to seeing it!
