Caroline Wozniacki crushes Maria Sharapova in the semi-final of the BNP Paribas Open
World number one Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark continues her sublime form to outclass the 16th seed Russian, Maria Sharapova in the quarter-final of the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, California on Friday night. The top seed wiped out her Russian opponent in a convincing straight sets victory, 6-1, 6-2, taking just one hour and twenty one minutes of play.
The top ranked Dane levelled her head-to-head record against Sharapova to 2-2 with her 14th victory of the running year at Indian Wells. Wozniacki was in a destructive mood right from the start and gave no chance to her opponent, breaking her serve six times in the contest. She bettered the Russian in all segments of the game and exhibited a magnificent show of sheer dominance over the former world number one.
Sharapova failed to display her vintage class against the world number one and was in no sort of rhythm to compete with Wozniacki. The 23-year-old Russian had poor serve statistics, serving with just 58 per cent accuracy and spilling out eight costly double faults in the game. She merely won 38 percent total points on her serve, as compared to 58 per cent bagged by her opponent.
Wozniacki showed the true class of a top ranked player, serving brilliantly with 84 per cent accuracy and clinching 31 out of 52 first serve points in the contest. She had an aggressive start to the opening set, breaking Sharapova’s serve twice to lead 4-1. The Dane stung her third serve break of the first set and then comprehensively served out at 6-1 to lead 1-0 in the match.
An early exchange of serve breaks took the scores to 2-2 in the second set but the Dane still remained dominant with her accurate power hitting. Wozniacki got two break chances at 2-2 but frittered away the first one before Sharapova coughed yet another double fault to fall behind. The Dane stung her second consecutive serve break at 4-2 and then easily served out of the contest at 6-2 to advance to the final of the BNP Paribas Open.
Wozniacki will face the 15th seed Frenchwoman, Marion Bartoli, in the final at the Indian Wells. Bartoli outplayed her semi-final opponent, 23rd seed Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium in straight sets, 6-1, 6-3 to reach the final.
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