Victoria Azarenka scuttles past Simona Halep into the quarter final – Generali Ladies Linz 2012
World number one, Victoria Azarenka, wasted little time in gusting away the 46th ranked Romanian, Simona Halep, in the second round of the Generali Ladies Linz on Thursday. She registered a couple of breadsticks in just
54 minutes and rolled into the last eight with the score line of 6-1, 6-1.
Azarenka commented at the end of the match, “I felt I played much better than yesterday, and it's important for me to progress from one day to another. I'm not really thinking about statistics or how many matches I'm winning right
now, I'm just trying to keep going.”
Halep fought hard at the beginning of the set to deny her opponent from an early breakthrough but the resistance was just not good enough to hold Azarenka from running away with the show. The 23-year-old Belarusian broke serve
in the first game and won four straight points afterwards to make it 2-0 in her favour.
Azarenka continued the onslaught; winning three back-to-back breakpoints in the meantime while failed just once on her serve in the fourth game. The opening set was over in a flash and the 21-year-old Romanian hardly surpassed
entered the double figures as far as total points won were concerned.
Both players committed two double-faults but the conversion ratio of breakpoints differentiated the two athletes in the end. Azarenka bagged four out of five whilst her opponent could just manage to squeeze one of the allotted
three breakpoints.
The second set witnessed a serve hold at both ends but not before the Romanian was tested to her limits in the second game. However, the following five games were quickly bagged by the Belarusian world number one courtesy two breakthroughs
on the trot coupled with three fantastic serve holds. It was an expected result of the match especially considering the form that Azarenka is enjoying at the moment.
The potential victim another commanding score line is the Croatian number one, Petra Martic, who will look to defy the odds and continue the good work that helped her to book a berth in the quarter final of the contest.
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