Victoria Azarenka vs. Angelique Kerber: Semi-final Preview – BNP Paribas Open 2012
World number one, Victoria Azarenka, takes on the 19th ranked German, Angelique Kerber, in the semi-final of the BNP Paribas Open on Friday. The match is scheduled to be played on the hard courts of Indian Wells, USA
and will be the second head-to-head battle between the two tennis professionals.
Without doubt, the Belarusian tennis icon leads the head-to-head scores by 1-0. The only triumph came in the second round of the Wimbledon (juniors) tournament way back in 2004. It is technically the first meeting after both the
players came into the limelight.
Azarenka is unbeaten for the last 21 games; ever since the start of the New Year. She has won three back-to-back titles including her first Grand Slam title, the Australian Open. She dethroned the controversial world number one,
Caroline Wozniacki, after winning the grand finale in Melbourne and climbed up to the number one spot. Since then she has been untroubled by anyone at any surface.
Kerber also had a very bright start to this season. She won her first Women Tennis Association title in Paris during the Open GDF Suez; dumping the second seed French, Marion Bartoli, in the final. She has displayed a lot of potential
and her performance against the superior ranked number one Chinese star, Li Na, is an example of that.
She has the opportunity to become the first player who will register a win against the Belarusian tennis icon. She might not be well equipped to pull up such a majestic upset but she definitely has the potential to raise her game
to that level which can frustrate the reigning Australian Open champion.
If she is able to absorb pressure and take an initial lead in the match, she definitely has an outer chance of capsizing the 22-years-old jolly number one. Considering the last 10 encounters of Kerber, the only player who has troubled
her is Tsvetana Pironkova who halted her progress in the second round of the Qatar Total Open in Doha. Apart from that, she has overpowered the likes of world number two, Maria Sharapova and the German tennis icon, Sabine Lisicki.
In a post-match interview of the quarter-final clash, she stated, “I have nothing to lose in the next match. I will go out there, try to play my tennis and focus on myself like today. But also I'm going to try to enjoy myself out
there, and try to beat her, of course.”
Azarenka will definitely be eyeing her 22nd successive win this year and another record that will take her above the former world number one, Serena Williams, who also won 21 matches on the trot at the season-start way
back in 2003.
The Belarusian is the hot favourite to win the match unless something bitter happens for her; an injury or some mishap. Kerber can only hope against the hope that Azarenka loses her form all at once and she can bully her across
the courts. It will purely be a one-sided from Azarenka and she will win the match in straight sets.
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