Victoria Azarenka defeats Maria Sharapova to qualify for the final – US Open 2012
Reigning world number one, Victoria Azarenka defeated the Russian beauty Maria Sharapova in the semi-final of the US Open 2012 held at the hard courts of the Flushing Meadows Park. Azarenka penned down her 3-6,
6-2, 6-4 triumph on Friday and marched into the final of the coveted Grand Slam event.
Sharapova in a post match interview told the media, “It's frustrating, but it's the game of tennis.. I had the lead and the advantage, but she picked up her game. I didn't do much on her service games - she was
winning them pretty easily. It's New York; it's a Grand Slam; it's the US Open. This is what you practice for, is to get in those situations and try to get out of them; today I just didn't. I would have loved to get even further here at the last one of the
year, but it's certainly a step better than the last few years I've been here.”
The third seed Sharapova initially exhibited an excellent game plan and outran the Belarusian native to exert some pressure upon her. She confidently drew the first blood in the initial game to bring the scores
line to 3-love. Azarenka struggled to squander her edge in the next game, but miserably failed to impose any lead and by the end of sixth game. Sharapova capitalise on another break chance, closing the opening set with a 6-3 lead.
Initially in the second set, both contenders retained the opening serves but evened out their scores to 1-all in the second game. The 23-year-old picked up pace in the next game and she broke Sharapova’s serve
in the fourth game, leaping to a 4-2 score afterwards. The Belarusian maintained her serve throughout and capitalised her triumph by a 6-2 score.
The former world number one tried her best to upset her opponent but she appeared helpless in front of her opponent’s powerful ground strokes. The right-hander Belarusian swiped the complete set without facing
even a single interruption and availed the winner’s title after closing the set with her 6-4 win.
The world number three, Sharapova, bombarded eight aces but on the other point, she double faulted 10 times at the critical moments during the match. She manifested a higher first serve share of percentage of
70, converting 53 of 83 points on it. On the other hand, Azarenka had a steady first serve of 65, attaining 38 of 52 points.
The Belarus professional will face a tough challenge at the hand of the American veteran Serena Williams. She battled past the Italian number one Sara Errani, 6-1, 6-2 in the semi-finals.
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