Victoria Azarenka conquers Sloane Stephens to reach the grand finale – Australian Open 2013
Victoria Azarenka, defending champion at the Australian Open, reached the last stage of the event at the expense of the 19-year-old American, Sloane Stephens, whose defence lasted an hour and 41 minutes at the hard courts of the
Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne. The 23-year-old Belarusian marched along smoothly in the contest and won the encounter in straight sets 6-1, 6-4.
The 25th ranked American had a nervy start in the semi-final battle; lost the opening serve game and went down a trail of 0-2 courtesy a serve hold for the number one player in the world. The lead was extended to 4-1
by the Belarusian courtesy a serve break in the fifth game and she rounded of the opening set in quick succession with another breakpoint.
After a whooping opening set that witnessed 33 minutes battering of the American teenager, Azarenka began the second set in emphatic fashion as well. She held her serve with ease and broke serve to stamp her authority. However,
the commanding start was thrown away by the reigning world number one who dropped a serve game and allotted her rival to bounce back into the contest.
Stephens was under the cosh in the sixth game again. She lost the breakpoint and went down to a trail but recovered immediately by breaking her rival’s serve. The trade of breakthroughs was followed by another thrilling swap of
momentum. Stephens was back level on serves and had to hold game to make sure she kept her chances of marching ahead alive.
Azarenka squandered an opportunity to close out the game at the first incident but did well to hang on to the second allotted opportunity. The American youngster over-hit the stroke across the court that landed just long. It was
the last action from the contest.
Commenting at the end of the match, Azarenka said, “I almost did the choke of the year right now. At 5-3, having so many chances and I couldn't close it out. I was a bit overwhelmed realising I was one step away from the final.
Nerves got into me, for sure.”
She further added about a slight delay during the match, “It took me too long of a time to call the trainer, which was my mistake. I took it to the point where I couldn't breathe, which was causing from my back problem, and I couldn't
really figure out what was going on the court. When the trainer told me that was the rib that was blocking that, my back, that's what happened.”
Li Na and Victoria Azarenka will square off in the hunt for the first Grand Slam title of the year on Saturday.
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