Sharapova For Finals Slam

Tennis Betting Lines

Both semifinal matches lasted two hours, 12 minutes.

 

Azarenka is 3-3 in her career against Sharapova, with two of those wins coming in finals.

 

The winner of Saturday's title match will become the new world No. 1, supplanting Clijsters' quarterfinal victim, Caroline Wozniacki. Sharapova has not held the top ranking since the week of June 8, 2007.

 

Kvitova beat Sharapova in straight sets to win her first Grand Slam last July, but trailed early against the three-time major titlist on Thursday at Melbourne Park.

 

Sharapova, seeded fourth, lost the second set, and was down 0-30 at 4-4 in the third before a replay reversal gave her new life. The Russian won the next four points to put the pressure back on Kvitova, who could not hold serve thanks to several unforced errors in the final game.

 

The 22-year-old Azarenka, meanwhile, became the first Belarusian woman to reach a Grand Slam final since Natasha Zvereva was the runner-up at Roland Garros in 1988 when she was representing the Soviet Union.

 

If this was, in fact, the Belgian's final visit to the season's first major, she went down fighting. Azarenka broke Clijsters' second service game of the match, then fought off four break chances in the proceeding game.

 

Clijsters, the 11th seed, quickly evened the match before falling behind 4-1 in the third. She held serve and trailed 40-0 in the next game before earning another break to get back on serve.

 

"I felt like my hand is about 200 kilograms and my body is about 1,000 and everything is shaking, but that feeling when you finally win is such a relief. My God I cannot believe it's over. I just want to cry," Azarenka said as she fought off tears, then put her face in a towel.

 

In the quarterfinals, Clijsters fought off four match points against last year's Aussie runner-up to her, Li Na.

 

"The match was very close. There were a few deciding moments where I think I maybe had a little bit of an advantage, in the third set, especially that first game where I had break point," Clijsters said. "But she definitely played really well. So she deserved to win at the end."

 

Azarenka and Sharapova have split six career matchups, with two of Azarenka's wins coming in finals. Saturday will mark their first-ever Grand Slam meeting.

comments

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•    Congratulations to the S2/3 Rugby League team who won the West of Scotland Tournament today and progress to the national quarter finals.

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•    #Djokovic is unsure that #Murray’s new coach, 8 time Grand Slam champion Ivan Lendl, can make an immediate difference in his student’s play!

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•    Does playing grand slam tennis 2 count as working out? Because I'm sweating..

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•    Shrieking Azarenka complains about crowd noise? Wow! #AO

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•    Men's Tennis is now boring....You can predict the last 4 in each grand slam. 1) Djokovic 2) Nadal 3) Federer 4) Murray

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•    Elke ochtend is hangover op slam fm -___-"

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•    Wah Final Australia Open tunggal putri Victoria Azarenka vs Maria Sharapova baru besok ya, mau nonton nih *-*

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•    exciting parin naman ang finals ngaun,kc d nmn tambakan ang game xcpt sa game1, la lng tlga finishing kick ang powerade

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•    nadal early in his career barely ever made to the finals on any other surface

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•    On her bam bam...just drop anodda tune and now she want deh grand slam

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