World No. 2 Caroline Wozniacki outclassed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus to take a berth in the final at the Pan Pacific Open yesterday.
The 20-year-old Danish top seed, who dropped only seven games in her three previous matches this week, needed a tough 2 hours, 51 minutes before clinching a 6-2, 6-7 (3/7), 6-4 victory in the semi-finals.
“I’m feeling really good. I’m enjoying being here to play the final. It’s a great feeling. I’m looking forward to that,” said Wozniacki, who lost her opening matches in her previous two visits. “I was really happy that I won the match and that I was in the final. It was a tough match, and Victoria is a great player and a good friend of mine. We always have tough matches and it was nice to win this battle.”
PHOTO: AFP
In the final today, Wozniacki will play Beijing Olympic gold medalist Elena Dementieva of Russia, who defeated French Open champion Francesca Schiavone of Italy 6-4, 7-5.
Azarenka, playing her first tournament since her collapse in the US Open, got off to a good start, hitting a backhand winner down the line to take an advantage, before breaking Wozniacki in the opening game, but the Dane took the following four games in a row and won the set on Azarenka’s sixth double-fault in the eighth game.
Azarenka, 21, again broke to love in the first game of the second set and added two more breaks, but each time Wozniacki broke back, saving one set-point in the 10th game to force a tiebreaker.
Azarenka again lost a mini-break up twice, but a couple of winners from the base-line gave her a 5-3 lead and then forced the Dane to mis-fire her shots to tie the contest.
However, Azarenka seemed to run out of steam as she went down 0-5 in the final set. Although she crawled back to 4-5 taking 12 points in a row, Wozniacki calmly served out to finish off the epic battle.
“At 5-0 I felt really good, then Victoria started playing really, -really well and it was 5-4. I know that Victoria is a competitor, she doesn’t give up, she didn’t have anything to lose anymore,” Wozniacki said. “She could just go for her shots and everything was going in. I was: ‘OK, I’m up 5-4 and it’s my serve and I have a break, so I just need to get my first serves in.’”
Azarenka said: “It was a good match for both of us. In the first set I was doing everything right. I couldn’t take the opportunities when I had them, so that cost me a lot of games today.”
“There were so many close games, especially in the first set, and I couldn’t take the opportunities as well as the beginning of the third set,” 11th-ranked Azarenka said.
OUT AGAINST INDONESIA: Taiwan reached the semi-finals at the tournament for the first time by defeating Denmark, with Chou Tien-chen beating Viktor Axelsen Taiwan yesterday crashed out of the Thomas Cup team competition in Chengdu, China, but achieved their best result at the top-tier badminton event by reaching the semi-finals. Indonesia were too good in the semis, winning 3-0 to advance to today’s final against China, who eliminated Malaysia 3-1. In the opening singles of the men’s team clash at the Hi-Tech Zone Sports Center Gymnasium 2, Anthony Ginting defeated Taiwan’s Chou Tien-chen 21-18, 21-19 in 51 minutes, which put a huge hole in Taiwan’s aspirations to perhaps even make the final. In the men’s doubles, Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Ardianto downed Lee Yang and Wang
NO DOUBT: Spurs star Wembanyama was unanimously selected as NBA Rookie of the Year, winning all 99 votes to become the first Frenchman to capture the honor The Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday night produced a dominant defensive display to seize a commanding 2-0 lead in their best-of-seven playoff series against the Denver Nuggets with a 106-80 road victory. The third-seeded Timberwolves harassed Denver relentlessly to claim a second straight win over the NBA champions as the series heads back to Minneapolis for Game 3 on Friday. Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards scored 27 points apiece, but the star of the show was Minnesota’s suffocating defensive effort, which knocked Denver out of their stride almost from the tip-off. The Timberwolves finished with 11 steals and 12 blocks, in sharp contrast to
Top-ranked Iga Swiatek on Saturday came through “the most intense and crazy final” she has ever contested to avenge her loss to Aryna Sabalenka in last year’s Madrid Open final with a grueling three hour, 11 minute victory in the Spanish capital. Coming back from 1-3 down in the decider and saving three match points in total, Swiatek claimed a 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (9/7) victory to secure the Madrid Open trophy for the first time. “Well, who is going to say now that women’s tennis is boring, right?” Swiatek said. Swiatek, who picked up the 20th title of her career, and ninth at
One of Malaysia’s top soccer clubs has pulled out of today’s season-opening Charity Shield after a spate of assaults, including an acid attack, on players in the country. It leaves the kickoff of Malaysia’s season this weekend under a cloud following the unprecedented acts of violence against players, which have left the country shocked and angry. Authorities said they have imposed tighter security, but Selangor said that they would not play in the showpiece curtain-raiser against Malaysian Super League champions Johor Darul Ta’zim (JDT) citing “a series of criminal incidents and recent threats.” Selangor and Malaysia winger Faisal Halim is in intensive care