Victoria Azarenka upsets Kim Clijsters in the quarter-final on Sony Ericsson Open
Another great upset for tennis fans around the world as the eighth seed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus outplayed the injury-stricken world number two, Kim Clijsters of Belgium in the quarter-final of the Sony Ericsson Open at Miami,
Florida on Wednesday night. The 8th ranked Azarenka wrapped up victory in straight sets 6-3, 6-3, taking just one hour and twenty minutes to book a place in the semi-finals of the WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) event.
The 21-year-old Belarusian showed magnificent skills with the racquet to route the defending champion out of the tournament. Azarenka broke the winning streak of Clijsters, who had been victorious against her on two prior occasions
and reduced the head-to-head match deficit against the Belgian to 2-4.
It was the 10th victory for Azarenka in the running WTA season, ending the hopes of Clijsters to defend her title at Miami. The second seed failed to put up a performance of her calibre and conceded a number of errors
to lose the contest in the end. She served merely with 54 per cent accuracy in the contest, which certainly negates the true class of Clijsters and she committed eight costly double faults to assist her opponent to victory.
The Belgian is carrying a shoulder injury since the start of this year and had to retire in the fourth round of the BNP Paribas Open two weeks ago. Azarenka fully capitalized upon the debilitating condition of Clijsters and cruised
past the contest to reach the semi-finals.
“I just didn’t feel good out there. Just mentally and physically, I didn’t feel right,” Clijsters told the press reporters in her post match reviews, “Against some lower ranked players maybe it’s possible to get through matches,
but against somebody like her (Azarenka) it isn’t.”
The two players exchanged a serve break early in the opener but signs of fatigue were evident from the Belgian competitor. She coughed four costly double faults in the first set, allowing the Belarusian to take advantage of her.
Azarenka eventually stung two more serve breaks to close out the first set at 6-3 and take the upper hand in the contest.
Nothing went the Belgian’s way in the next set as well and her serve dropped even further to a mere 48 per cent, conceding four double faults. Although Clijsters crafted two serve breaks in the second set, her confident opponent
back fired three break points to leave her answerless. The world number eventually submitted the match to Azarenka at 3-6, allowing her a pass to the semis.
Azarenka will square off against another top ranked player in the semi-final, the world number three Vera Zvonareva of Russia. Zvonareva won her quarter-final matchup convincingly against the ninth seed Agnieszka Radwanska in straight
sets 7-5, 6-3, to meet Azarenka in the round of four.
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