The organisation of this edition of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix did an amazing work with increndible results.
On saturday all top 4 players in the world will play the semifinals.
Let’s see what happened in the quarters.
AZARENKA – BARTHEL 6-4 6-7 (3) 7-5
This match had everything in it. On one side there was the world nr.1 eager to further consolidate her leadership. On the other side we had a surprising wildcarded world nr.35 that was playing an incredible tournament where she defeated Ivanovic and Bartoli (a trash here) in straight sets displaying very powerful shots.
It took almost 3 hours for the world nr.1 to defeat the German in a very aggressive match with lots of aces (13 for Barthel and 5 for Azarenka) and also many double faults (16 for the German and 8 for the Belarus).
“She keeps producing some great tennis and she showed again today why she is a tough one to beat,” said Azarenka. “Her serve is definitely up there with the best, after more than two-and-a-half hours she was still blasting down aces. I have been saying for a while she is one to watch.”
Tomorrow Azarenka will take on Radwanska. It is going to be another spicy match between the two.
RADWANSKA – LI 3-6 6-2 6-3
The world nr.4 is really playing a great tennis. We has just won the tournament in Miami and once again she confirmed to be in top form with a remarkable victory over the 2011 Roland Garros champion Li Na in 2 hours.
“I am enjoying my tennis and just trying everything at the moment, which probably worked against me in the first set,” said Agniesza. “I was more calm in the second set and I am just happy I could turn things around. I just hope this is my year, so I can take the next step.”
Radwanska has a 28-4 record in 2012. The interesting part? The four matches lost were all of them at the hand of Azarenka. Will she reverse the trend?
KVITOVA – KERBER 6-4 6-4
This was the only “speedy” match of the day. Both players got to this match without dropping a set. Kerber wasparticularly full of confidence after trashing former world nr.1 Caroline Wozniacki 6-1 6-2 in the previous round .
Kvitova was also eager to show that she is still a top player after a very slow start in 2012 where she was supposed to easily grab the top spot of the world ranking.
There was not much difference in the match between the two with Petra winning a total of 56 points against 50 won by the German. The key difference was in the important points (well.. that’s tennis!). Petra converted 4/6 break points, while Angelique managed to convert 2 out of 4.
Kvitova will play Sharapova in the semis. The head to head is 2-2. The last match went to Maria at the semifinals of the 2012 Australian Open, but Petra won the final in Wimbledon last year.
SHARAPOVA – STOSUR 6-7 (5) 7-6 (5) 7-5
What a match! What a great match!
It took slightly more than 3 hours for Maria to win this epic. After winning the first set, Sam served for the match when she was leading 5-4 in the second. Then the Russian fought back to win the second an the third set.
“She has a great serve and she served as well as she ever has against me,” said Sharapova, “It was pretty difficult to play against her, so I am very happy with the win. It’s not over until the last point has been played and you’ve shaken hands. She had her chances to win, so I am just happy to have reached the last four. I have a second chance now and I intend to use it.”
“It sucks to lose, but when you play as well as I did tonight, you can’t be too hard on yourself,” Stosur commented.”It was a very good match, we both played well and there wasn’t much in it. Towards the end of the third set, she started serving very well and put me under pressure to get the only break point. The last game was the cherry on top for her winning at 40-0 with some very good serving.”
Looking forward to see tomorrow’s semifinals
NIGHT SESSIONS
SEMIFINALS
Azarenka – Radwanska
Kvitova – Sharapova
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DRAWS
