Victoria Azarenka squashes Romina Oprandi to reach the semis – China Open 2012
Top seed Belarusian superstar, Victoria Azarenka, bullied the 69th ranked Swiss, Romina Oprandi, in the quarter-final clash on the morning of Friday. She gusted her way in straight sets 6-2, 6-0 and booked a berth in the semi-final of the China Open at Beijing.
It was a remarkable performance from the 23-year-old Belarusian who rounded off the first quarter-final contest of the day in just 55 minutes. World number one looks to be in an emphatic run of form at the moment and destroying her opponents.
Looking at the head-to-head scores of the both players, one could imagine that it will not be a one-sided contest as they both had won a match apiece in their last two meetings. However, Oprandi ousted Azarenka in 2007 whereas the top seed superstar took her revenge in the second round of Wimbledon Championships earlier this season.
Azarenka lost two points on her opening serve game and didn’t make any mistake in grabbing a breakpoint to make it 2-0 upfront. She won four straight points in the third game of the match to extend the lead further. Finally, the Swiss professional grabbed a serve hold after a lot of trouble and got off the mark in the contest.
The Belarusian was on the verge of losing a breakpoint in the fifth game but bounced back into the contest with a delicately placed drop shot and held her serve with a fiery serve. Both players traded breakpoints in the following two games that pushed the scores to 5-2 in favour of the top seed. With no resistance from the 69th ranked Swiss in the final game, Azarenka won the third breakthrough and rounded off the opening set.
In the second set, the 26-year-old Oprandi just managed to win four points whereas Azarenka won 24 rallies on the other side of the court. It was a stunning performance from the number one player in the world who almost registered the second golden set in the history of the women tennis. Three breakpoints coupled with a hat-trick of serve holds allowed Azarenka to book a spot in the last four. She awaits the winner of the contest between Marion Bartoli and Carla Suarez Navarro to play them for the shot at the final showdown.
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