Friday, August 12, 2011

Azarenka and Williams to meet in Rogers Cup semifinals

Qualifier Galina Voskoboeva played her seventh Rogers Cup match today, and--not surprisingly--she didn't have much left to give. The surprise quarterfinalist who took out Marion Bartoli, Flavia Pennetta and Maria Sharapova reached the end of her run today when she was defeated 6-1, 6-2 by 4th seed Victoria Azarenka. Azarenka's semifinal opponent will be Stanford champion Serena Williams, who had to go three sets to beat Lucie Safarova. Azarenka and Williams have an interesting, if not long, history as opponents.

Carlsbad champion beat Andrea Petkovic 6-4, 6-3 today, so 13th seed Radwanska is into the semifinals. This is the second week in a row that Radwanska has defeated Petkovic. In the semifinals, Radwanska will play 10th seed Sam Stosur, who defeated Roberta Vinci 6-4, 6-1.

Voskoboeva and Vinci both had great runs in Toronto; Voskoboeva's was especially impressive because she had to go through qualifying to get into the tough main draw. Radwanska, playing for the first time without her father around to make inappropriate comments and put her down in front of everyone, is having a great U.S. hard court season.

Williams looked tired and out of sorts against an in-form Safarova, but that didn't stop her from finding a way to win. However, Williams can't afford to "find a way" against Azarenka. She's going to have to cut down on the errors and concentrate on breaking Azarenka's serve.

2010 champions Gisela Dulko and Flavia Pennetta got a step closer to defending their title today. The 2nd seeds advanced to the doubles semifinals when they defeated Klaudia Jans-Ignacik and Alicja Rosolska.

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