Victoria Azarenka had to draw on all her reserves by saving two match points in a heroic 3 hour, 6 minute tussle with Angelique Kerber in the WTA Championships.
The top-seeded Belarussian beat the German revelation 6-7 (11/13), 7-6 (7/2), 6-4 in an encounter full of magnificent rallies and surprises. Her win leaves Azarenka needing just one more win to guarantee her finishing the year as world No. 1.
Azarenka saved both match points by following up sound serving with bold and courageous driving. That helped make up for the five set points that Kerber had enterprisingly denied the top seed in the first set tie break.
Had Azarenka lost either of them — from 4-5, 15-40 in the second set — a pathway might have opened up for Maria Sharapova to sneak through to the summit instead.
Azarenka would now have to lose both her remaining group matches for this to happen, even though Sharapova later made sure of a place in tomorrow’s semi-finals by beating Agnieszka Radwanska, the Polish Wimbledon runner-up, 5-7, 7-5, 7-5 in another three-hour encounter.
“I felt I had to go for it on both match points,” Azarenka said. “I felt she would not miss, so I didn’t want to wait for her to make a mistake — I was determined to make it happen.”
“I wanted to change the momentum and take destiny into my own hands. I had a clear mind of what I had to do. It takes time to go through [what’s needed] and learn that,” she added. “I feel really proud I was a part of this match. Honestly you feel like you don’t want to leave the court, the atmosphere is so good.”
Azarenka’s three-set encounter also guaranteed that Serena Williams’ second success of the tournament earned the American a semi-final place.
The Olympic, US Open and Wimbledon champion won 7-6 (7/2), 6-3 against Li Na, the former French Open champion from China, but only after a noisy and surprisingly fraught performance.
Williams had to overcome the emotions which impelled her to smash a racket and earned her a code-violation warning.
That happened during a weird fourth game in which one of the finest servers in the history of the game delivered two successive double faults to go a break down.
“I guess I was angry and I wasn’t able to control myself,” she said. “But sometimes I play better when I get angry.”
Hers was a triumph of will more than anything, for she landed less than 50 percent of her first serves, dropped service games five times, and needed 1 hour, 50 minutes to get the win.
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals at the All England Open, beating Kim Ga-eun of South Korea 21-17, 21-15. With the win, Tai earned a semi-final against China’s He Bingjiao, who beat Michelle Li of Canada 21-9, 21-9. Defending champion An Se-young defeated India’s P.V. Sindhu 21-19, 21-11. An on Wednesday cruised into the second round, unlike last year’s men’s winner, Li Shifeng, who suffered a shock defeat. South Korea’s An, the world No. 1, overcame Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-chi 21-17, 21-16 to set up the match against Sindhu. In other women’s singles matches, Taiwan’s Sung Shuo-yun lost 21-18, 24-22 against Carolina Marin of
EYEING TOP SPOT: A victory in today’s final against Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova would return 38-year-old Hsieh Su-wei to the world No. 1 ranking Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens on Thursday secured a spot in the women’s doubles finals at the BNP Paribas Open after dispatching Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) at Indian Wells. Hsieh and her Belgian partner Mertens, who won the Australian Open in late January, coasted through the first set after breaking their opponents’ serve twice, but found the going tougher in the second. Both pairs could only muster one break point over 12 games, neither of which were converted, leaving the set to be decided by a tiebreaker. Hsieh and Mertens took a 6-3 lead,
DOUBLES PAYBACK: Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Martens avenged their defeat in the quarters at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open against Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei on Wednesday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium dispatched Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani 6-1, 6-4 to set up a clash against Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez for a spot in the final of the WTA 1000 tournament. Hsieh and Martens made a blistering start to their rematch after they lost to Schuurs and Stefani in the quarter-finals at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open last month, winning three games without reply at the start of the first set