Serena Williams stuns Victoria Azarenka to advance into title match – Rogers Cup 2011
America’s Serena Williams upset fourth seeded Belarusian Victoria Azarenka in straight sets at the Rogers Cup 2011, a WTA Premier event held on the hard courts at York University in Toronto, Canada. She registered a 6-3, 6-3 victory
over the 22-year-old Belarusian to secure the final spot on Saturday.
A former world number one, Williams outsmart the world number four, Azarenka in seventy-seven minutes on their fifth meeting. She extended her lead in the head-to-head series by 5-1 against Azarenka after earning this success and
advanced into the final at the Rexall Centre.
Currently ranked 80th in the Sony Ericsson WTA Premier rankings, Williams confidently entered the Canadian hard courts and held her opening serve convincingly. She continued hammering blistering forehands to fish out
easy points to hold her serves until the fifth game. Williams earned the coveted break in the sixth game and extended the lead by 4-2. Despite losing her serve in the very next game, she broke the Belarusian’s serve once again in the eighth game and then held
her serve in the proceeding game to seal the opener with a 6-3 win.
29-year-old American kept momentum rolling into the second set and after Azarenka held her serve in the fifth game, Williams unleashed barrage of groundstrokes to reel off last four games in a row to clinch the set with a similar
6-3 score line again.
Summing up, the Belarusian youngster spilled several errors and five double faults. She clobbered a much higher first serve share but squandered it. Most importantly, Azarenka found only two breakpoint opportunities of which she
converted one to her advantage and saved only five out of nine breakpoints faced.
"It was important for me to come in and take charge. I didn't have anything to lose," Williams said in her on-court interview. "It's really cool - I came to Toronto just trying to do my best, next thing I know I'm in the final.
I love the Toronto crowd. Maybe it's something to do with them! I just kind of knew I was playing a really, really good player today and I basically had to step up my game or go to Cincinnati."
The American will face the tenth seeded Australian Samantha Stosur.
"The last time she played, she got the best of me," Williams said about her next opponent. "She definitely has an opportunity to take it all. She's been playing well. This court suits her game. I have nothing to lose, and I'm happy
to have gotten this far."
World number eleven, Stosur rallied past world number twelve Agnieszka Radwanska in about two hours to secure a final spot.
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