We had a dream draw with the best players in the world, we had dream semifinals with the top 4 players and, why not, we also have the dream final with the 2 top players of the WTA ranking.
Yes, it will be Azarenka – Sharapova again. Probably the best possible final where we are going to expect huge grunts mixed with a very aggressive tennis.
But will Sharapova be able to defeat Azarenza this time? The head-to-head is in favour of Vika (5-3) that also managed to defeat (ehm… trash) Maria twice this year in 2 important finals at the Australian Open (6-3 6-0) and in Indian Wells (6-2 6-3).
The only time they played on clay it was in Rome in the quarter finals last year when Azarenka had to retire when she was 6-4 0-3. Otherwise, Maria do not beat Vika since 2009 in Beijing 6-3 6-7(5) 7-5.
But let’s see what happened during the semifinals
AZARENKA – RADWANSKA 6-1 6-3
Agniesza did a very big mistake to publicy criticize Vika after her defeat in Doha. Even if both players (especially Azarenka) are good and play down what happened… there is something more between the two. Azarenka has now extra motivations when she plays with Agnieszka. After the quarrel they played twice. The first time it was in the quarters in Indian Wells (6-0 6-2 for the Belarus) and here in Stuttgart.
The semifinal lasted only 77 minutes with Azarenka blasting whatever she could at the world nr.4. Once again after the match the handshake from Agnieszka wasn’t as warm as it should be (when is it going to finish this thing?)
The incredible stat is that in 2012 Radwanska defeated everybody but Azarenka losing 5 straight matches.
“I have a lot of respect for Agnieszka and what she has done this year. She has been showing some incredible results,” Azarenka said. “Every time I play her I know I have to bring out my best – in a kind of ironic way, she brings out the best in me when I play her. We meet each other so often because we go to the far stages of tournaments. And I expected a tough match again today. The time of the match is not important. You could be spending two hours on the court but barely working hard and having no rallies, but you could spend one hour and it’s so intense. I don’t pay attention. I just try to stay focused.”
Radwaska commented. “Another semifinal this year at a very strong tournament is not a bad result of course,” she said, “but playing against the same player all the time is not really fun! She is just playing great tennis this year and played another good match against me today. I’ll be back to try and win the car next year!”
HIGHLIGHTS IN THE ABOVE VIDEO
SHARAPOVA – KVITOVA 6-4 7-6 (3)
Another high quality semifinal.
Sharapova has always hard time with Kvitova (who doesn’t?). The Russian managed to defeat Petra again in another semifinal after the Australian Open.
It was a very tense match with Maria doing her usual amount of double faults (8 out of 11 service games!!!), but being very sharp in holding her serve.
The break point conversion was critical. Petra managed to convert only 1 out of 11 break points while Maria converted 2 out of 7. This was the real difference.
“I had a lot of chances – it was the same as in Melbourne,” Kvitova said. “At the beginning of the match I wasn’t returning well, and I think that continued in the second set. I didn’t return her serve well and I think that was the key. But she had good serves when she needed them and from the baseline she was so aggressive – you have to be ready because she’s very dangerous.”
Her impressive 27-match indoor winning streak came to an end.
