Victoria Azarenka retires; Maria Sharapova advances into the semis at Internazionali BNL d’Italia
Seventh seeded Russian Maria Sharapova advanced into the semi-finals of 2011 Internazionali BNL d’Italia, a clay court tournament held in Rome, Italy after the third seeded Belarusian Victoria Azarenka retired from the match due
to an injury despite her 1-0 lead in the set score..
A former world number one, Sharapova lost the first set against the world number four Azarenka but led 3-0 in the second set when the Belarusian was forced to retire due to a right elbow contusion. Azarenka recently defeated the
Russian to win the title at Miami but this is the third match she retired from in the last six tournaments she has participated in. The Russian has now levelled the head-to-head series against the Belarusian at 3-3.
The Belarusian is blooming this season after winning two titles already. She was a runner up at Madrid last week and won eighteen out of her last twenty matches before retiring in this event. The other two matches the Belarusian
lost was due to retirement as well.
21-year-old stormed into the opening set and broke the Russian’s serve in the very first game. Although she returned the favour in the proceeding game, the Belarusian broke Sharapova’s serve two more times to take the lead 5-2.
She lost her serve in the proceeding game but held it in the last to clinch the set with a 6-4 victory.
Currently ranked eighth in the WTA premier rankings, Sharapova - still struggling for her first title this season, re-formed her strategy in the second set. She held her serve in the first game smoothly by moving the Belarusian
all over the court. The Russian then found the coveted break after Azarenka faced problem with her right hand. Sharapova then held her serve in the third game to take the 3-0 when Azarenka seemed to be in extreme pain and called the match off by quitting it.
24-year-old will next face the world number one and top seed Caroline Wozniacki who rallied past Serb Jelena Jankovic in a three set thriller to reach this spot.
"She's No.1 in the world and a great clay court player," Sharapova said. "It's going to be a very physical match. She's someone that never misses a ball. It will be really important to be patient and aggressive when I have to be."
Sharapova now reached semi-finals for the third time at this event. During en-route to semis in 2008, she beat Wozniacki but it won’t be the same this time since the Dane is now in tremendous form.
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