Day 4 Wrap-Up in Istanbul
Day 4 Wrap-Up in Istanbul
With round-robin play concluded, the semifinals are all set at the year-end TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships as Red Group No.1 Petra Kvitova will take on White Group No.2 Sam Stosur, and White Group No.1 Victoria Azarenka taking on Red Group No.2 Vera Zvonareva from Istanbul.
The Queenslander Stosur turned in a dominated performance on Friday which included a barrage of blistering forehands against a beat up and beleaguered Li Na of China, 6-1, 6-0 in just over one hour to move Stosur’s personal head-to-head against Li to 6-0.
Li was completely overmatched against the hard-serving Stosur, who ended the match with 15 winners to Li’s four and had just 22 unforced errors to 32 for Li.
“I’m very happy with the way I played. To come back from a disappointing loss in my last match and do this is great,” Stosur said in her on-court interview. “Making it to the semifinals here last year will help me. I’ve learned a lot from all my previous experiences, so I’m hoping this year will be different.”
She added: “The semifinals are tough no matter what the circumstances. I’m not expecting an easy match. I hope I can play like I did tonight.”
Li suffered her worst loss in terms of games won since falling to Nadia Petrova by the same scoreline in the semifinals of the clay court stop in Berlin in 2008. Though her tournament ended in the round robin stage, she still leaves Istanbul with some positives, most notably snapping a three-match losing streak with a win over No.2-ranked Maria Sharapova in her first round robin match.
Kvitova shut the door on Agnieszka Radwanska’s bid to make it to the semifinals, winning in straight sets to finish first in the Red Group and bring Vera Zvonareva into the final four along with her.
With Kvitova, Victoria Azarenka and Samantha Stosur already through, Radwanska had to take a set from Kvitova on Friday to become the fourth player into the final four. And that goal didn’t seem far away at all as she stormed out to a 5-1 first set lead – but Kvitova suddenly came alive, her power game hitting its mark as she stormed back to take the opening set comfortably in a tie-break.
Radwanska was up 5-1 in the first set needing simply to close out the set to advance to the semifinals, but she wasn’t able to pull it off.
“When I started today I was a bit confused. I didn’t know what to do and was surprised Aga was moving so well,” Kvitova said in her on-court interview. “Luckily I was able to refocus. And the atmosphere today was unbelievable – the people who came today were great, I hope they can come tomorrow too.”
Kvitova finished first in the Red Group with a perfect 3-0 record and 6-0 in set. Although Zvonareva, Radwanska and Caroline Wozniacki all ended with a 1-2 win-loss record and 3-5 sets won-lost, Zvonareva had the best games won-lost percentage of the three and thus finished second in the Red Group.
“I didn’t expect this, winning all three matches in my group and making it to the semifinals,” Kvitova continued. “I hope tomorrow won’t be the end.”
Kvitova has beaten Stosur in straight sets in both previous meetings. Zvonareva leads Azarenka in their career head-to-head series, 6-3.
In the days final match that had no meaning, No. 9 seed and alternate Marion Bartoli of France defeated No. 4 Azarenka, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4, to complete round-robin play.
Friday’s Final Round Robin Scores:
Round Robin – Red Group
(3) Petra Kvitova (CZE) def. (8) Agnieszka Radwanska (POL) 7-6 (4), 6-3
(9/ALT) Marion Bartoli (FRA) d. (4) Victoria Azarenka (BLR) 5-7, 6-4, 6-4
Round Robin – White Group
(7) Samantha Stosur (AUS) def. (5) Li Na (CHN) 6-1, 6-0
Topics: Petra Kvitova, Sam Stosur, Vera Zvonareva, Victoria Azarenka
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