Sony Ericsson Open – Women Tennis News

Written by: Staff on 29th March 2012

Singles – Quarterfinal: (7) Marion Bartoli def. (1) Victoria Azarenka 6-3 6-3

Our attitude toward Victoria Azarenka’s winning streak was always sort of like the lines from A. E. Housman:

And ’twill not end to-morrow,

Though sure enough ’twill end.

We really didn’t think it would end here. But Azarenka had looked pretty stiff in her previous match, and this time, she looked even more stiff. Presumably she is out of gas. Hard to blame her. It won’t affect her ranking; she remains #1.

It does affect Marion Bartoli’s ranking, though. Had she lost this, she would have fallen to #8. With the win, she gets to keep the #7 ranking.

Singles – Quarterfinal: (5) Agnieszka Radwanska def. (WC) Venus Williams 6-4 6-1

Agnieszka Radwanska had already clinched the #4 ranking when Samantha Stosur lost, but she is now widening her lead. Indeed, if she keeps playing as she has been playing, and if Petra Kvitova continues to struggle, Radwanska has a good shot at the #3 ranking during the clay season.

Venus didn’t look her best in this match; apparently she felt really tired. It seems her illness is still affecting her. But she is still talking about the Olympics. It’s going to be interesting to see if she can improve her ranking enough to qualify, given that we’re going into the clay season.

Doubles – Quarterfinal: (5) Kirilenko/Petrova def. (WC) Pavlyuchenkova/Safarova 6-1 7-6(7-5)

One more win and Maria Kirilenko should return to the doubles Top Ten.

Doubles – Quarterfinal: King/Niculescu def. Medina Garrigues/Pennetta 7-5 6-2

Could Vania King make a run at the #1 doubles ranking without Yaroslava Shvedova? She has a long, long way to go, and it will be tough if she chooses her events based on her singles ranking (the top doubles players these days are all doubles specialists) — but results like this make it seem faintly possible.

©”DAILY TENNIS NEWS WIRE”

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SONY ERICSSON OPEN

Miami, FL, USA

March 20-31, 2012

$4,828,050/Premier

Hard/Outdoors

Results – Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Singles – Quarterfinals

(7) Marion Bartoli (FRA) d. (1) Victoria Azarenka (BLR) 63 63

(5) Agnieszka Radwanska (POL) d. (WC) Venus Williams (USA) 64 61

Doubles – Quarterfinals