Seven-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams ousted fourth-seeded birthday girl Victoria Azarenka in straight sets on Thursday to reach the quarter-finals of the Bank of the West Classic in Stanford, California.
The 6-4, 7-6 (7/1) triumph kept Venus on course for a possible semi-final showdown with her sister, Serena, the world No. 1 and top seed, who was due to take on Ana Ivanovic in the quarter-finals yesterday.
“Williams-Williams tomorrow, hopefully,” Venus told the crowd at the campus of Stanford University, where she came out on top in a hard-fought, physical duel with Azarenka that lasted 1 hour, 42 minutes.
Photo: AFP
“It’s never easy to play Victoria. We’ve always had extremely tough matches, so I expected that tonight as well,” said Venus, who acknowledged that Azarenka may have been at a disadvantage after having a first-round bye.
That meant the match was the Belarussian’s first since her second-round exit at Wimbledon.
It was a disappointing result on her 25th birthday for Azarenka, who came into the week ranked 10th in the world, but needed to reach the semi-finals to stay in the top 10.
A left-foot injury sidelined her for three months this year, before she returned to action at the Wimbledon tuneup event in Eastbourne, England.
The former world No. 1, who has two Australian Open titles, did not go quietly.
Azarenka gamely fought off two match points in the 12th game of the second set to force the tiebreaker, but from there on it was all Venus.
The 34-year-old American won the first point of the tiebreaker on her own serve, then fired two forehand winners to take the next two points on Azarenka’s serve and never looked back.
Azarenka double-faulted to give Venus a 6-1 lead and the American held on to win the next point — firing over a running forehand that Azarenka could only belt back into the net.
Venus had come on strong late in the opening set as well, sealing the frame with a service break in the final game.
Venus next faces eighth seed Andrea Petkovic of Germany, who booked her quarter-final berth on Wednesday.
Earlier on Thursday, fifth seed Ivanovic cruised past Canadian qualifier Carol Zhao 6-1, 6-1 in just 54 minutes to book her third meeting this year with Serena.
Ivanovic, a former world No. 1 herself, downed the American at the Australian Open, a defeat that Serena avenged in Rome.
The two have never played each other this many times in one season.
“It’s a good sign,” Ivanovic said.
“It means we’re getting further into the tournaments to play each other,” she said.
In other matches, third seed Angelique Kerber of Germany downed Coco Vandeweghe of the US 7-6 (7/4), 0-6, 6-2 to book a quarter-final with rising Spanish talent Garbine Muguruza, a 6-4, 6-4 winner over Slovakia’s Daniela Hantuchova.
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