Venus & Vika to Meet in Semis from Richard Evans, Qatar – by Richard Evans

After a bizarre interruption that had the referee on court and both players unhappy, Victoria Azarenka continued her progress up the WTA rankings by reaching the semi-final of the Qatar Total Open with a 6-3, 6-1 defeat of Caroline Wozniacki.

The argument was all about a weird line call off a net cord that saw the ball dribble over and landed clearly out less than a foot from the net.

“First of all I think that could go into a Hall of Fame of the worst calls I have ever seen in my life,” said Azarenka who was still so indignant about it that she was showing a video of the point off her IPhone to fellow players later in the evening. “Everybody does make mistakes but that was so slow to make a mistake it was pretty difficult.”

The confusion arose as to why Azarenka was not allowed to challenge (“I don’t know why”) and also as to whether Wozniacki was to be allowed a first serve because of the length of the disruption. With the referee being called for, it lasted almost five minutes.

“The rule of first serve or second serve, what happens, I don’t even know that,” admitted Azarenka. “That never happened to me. So it was a big mess.”

Wozniacki seemed to think there was a challenge but the system didn’t work. “And then I was waiting for at least four or five minutes and that’s why I think I deserved to have a first serve after all of that. I didn’t and I won the point in the end but lost the game.”

 

All that took place at the end of the first set and Wozniacki didn’t have much to offer after that as Azarenka took control in difficult, windy conditions. The loss was even more severe on the Dane than the 6-4, 6-2 score line of their second round match at the Australian Open in January and it broke the deadlock of four victories apiece between these two good friends.

Earlier Venus Williams had also enjoyed a repeat victory over an opponent she had beaten in Melbourne last month when she proved too powerful for No 4 seed Agnieszka Radwanska, winning 6-4, 1-6, 6-3. The Polish player was at her defensive best in the second set, rarely missing a ball, but she turned aggressive at 1-5 down in the third after struggling to handle the additional power Williams can inject into her game when she finds her rhythm.

Suddenly Radwanska slapped four great service return winners passed the surprised American and Venus needed to use all her experience – she reached No 1 in the world on this very day all of 13 years ago – to steady the ship and sail on to victory.

“Yeah, I didn’t serve badly,” said Venus. “I did hit a few second serves but they were deep and with kick. But I think sometimes you get down, like 5-1, you just get relaxed and you start to go for broke. I just tried to stay focused.”

That focus will need to stay firmly in place when she meets Azarenka in Friday’s semi-final. Not only is Azarenka regaining her confidence after a long injury hiatus last year but she obviously feels very comfortable here, having won this Qatar title twice before, once in 2012 and again the following year when she beat the junior sibling Serena.

 

The diminutive Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro, seeded 9^th, created the upset of the day when she outplayed top seed Petra Kvitova by 3-6, 6-0, 6-3. Although the reigning Wimbledon champion went into the match with a 5-3 winning margin in head to head encounters, Kvitova had, in fact, lost her two previous matches to Suarez Navarro, most recently in Dubai last week.

Kvitova dominated from the net in the first set before the Spaniard found her range and started whacking winners all over the court. Petra threatened to stage a come back 0-4 down in the third when she won three straight games but, after a word from her coach, Carla heeded the call to stay calm and closed out a thoroughly deserving victory.

Kvitova’s defeat ruined the chance of an all-Czech semi-final because the improving Lucie Safarova wasted little time in the last match of the day when she outplayed Germany’s Andrea Petkovic 6-2, 6-1. Petkovic was all over the place with her forehand in the wind and never looked capable of repeating the three set victory she achieved over the Czech left hander when they last met in the quarter finals of Charleston on clay last year.

 

 

 

 

Topics: Agnieszka Radwanska, Caroline Wozniacki, Petra Kvitova, Qatar Total Open, Ridchard Evans, Tennis News, Venus Williams, Victoria Azarenka

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