Victoria Azarenka downs Marion Bartoli in the quarter-final battle – Apia International Sydney 2012
Third seed Belarusian, Victoria Azarenka, had an enthralling battle against the ninth ranked French, Marion Bartoli, before she came out as the winner in the quarter-final round of the Apia International Sydney on Wednesday. The
contest took two hours and 26 minutes to conclude, with Azarenka winning in straight sets, 7-5, 6-4, to book a berth in the semi-finals of the $637,000 WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) tournament.
22-year-old Belarusian extended her lead to 8-2 in the all-time head-to-head combats against Bartoli after registering her second win of the new WTA season. She had a real rough ride in the opening set but kept her composure in
the game to outsmart the crafty French opponent with her pin-point hitting. Azarenka converted seven out of 10 break opportunities, with four of them coming in the first set alone. Bartoli also nailed five breaks to the Belarusian serve but they didn’t prove
sufficient to contain the belligerent Azarenka in the game.
"I saw her playing in Hopman Cup before and she was really solid. She played some incredible tennis today," Azarenka said while admiring the game play of Bartoli, "We always have tough matches, so I was expecting a tough battle.
It was a great test."
Bartoli was led down by her error-ridden game, as she coughed a number of sloppy errors on regularity, including 10 costly double faults as well, to finish on the losing side in the end. Azarenka served 67 per cent on target and
secured 36 out of 57 first serve points en route to victory. She had a strict check on her shot accuracy and kept the ball within the prescribed boundaries for most of the time, avoiding unforced errors to keep her momentum sailing in the contest.
After the two contestants held their opening serves, a series of break points was witnessed and a total of seven serve breaks were traded between both women. Bartoli’s eight double faults in the set proved a bit too taxing in the
end and Azarenka nailed her fourth break point of the day to close out the first set at 7-5.
Intense tennis continued in the following set as well, with the French labouring extremely hard to make her way back in the game. Her two serve breaks were responded with three cracking ones from the third seeded Belarusian, who
wound up her victory at 6-4, to get through to the semi-finals of the tournament in style.
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