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Azarenka and Williams set up final clash at the Madrid Open

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By Lisa-Marie Burrows

Mutua Madrid Open, Madrid – World No.1 Victoria Azarenka recorded her sixth victory this year against Agnieszka Radwanska 6-2, 6-4 to progress to her sixth final this year where she will meet Serena Williams after she defeated qualifier Lucie Hradecka 7-6, 6-0.
The Belarusian has reached the final for the second year running, which saw her miss out on the title last year to Petra Kvitova and will be looking to go one step further tomorrow and lift the title for the first time and record her 7th title victory this year.
During her 6-2 6-4 defeat over Agnieszka Radwanska, the 22 year old struck 29 winners and looked confident during her encounter on the Manolo Santana court.  She was able to dominate rallies and had great movement around the court, comfortably covering all areas. The Australian Open champion was out on court for only 79 minutes and sealed the match with a drop shot on her second match point.

Azarenka: "Put it in the headline 'I don't read draws.'"

During the press conference Victoria Azarenka was pleased with her performance and said that she feels she has been performing well. With the Rome Masters 1000 Series just around the corner Azarenka was informed of her draw and that she has another potential clash with the Agnieszka Radwanska, much to the horror of the world No.1 she said she didn’t want to know, as she never likes to know her draw in advance.
She had a special request for the journalists in the press room:

“Put it in the headline: I DON’T READ THE DRAW!”

In the clash she has set up with Serena Williams, she is aware that she will be a tough opponent, but the times that she had played against her before, she was ‘much younger.’

“She is one of the best players in the world, one of the toughest to play against. It is the first time I play her on clay.”

The second semi final of the day saw American Serena Williams taken to a tie-break in the first set of her game against Czech qualifier and world No.105 Lucie Hradecka.
The first set proved to be challenging for the world no.9 as they both went toe-to-toe during their rallies and big serves were fired on court. Williams eventually took the first set on her third set point.

Serena Williams has fought her way to No.6 in the world.

The second set was less competitive as the former world No.1 marched through the games, breaking Hradecka three times for a convincing 7-6 (7-5) 6-0 victory.
I informed Serena Williams during her press conference that she will now be world No.6 and with her arms raised she threw her head back and said:

“Get out! Yessss! I have reached my goal. I didn’t think I’d reach it. I’ve been working really hard but I don’t want to stop at No.6 obviously, I want to keep continuing on to do better.”

Going into the final tomorrow Serena feels she has ‘nothing to lose’ and will give it everything out there to win.
Lisa-Marie Burrows is currently in Madrid covering the Mutua Madrid Open and will be at the Rome Masters next week. Catch her as a regular contributor for TennisBloggers.com and on Twitter: @TennisNewsViews.

BNP Paribas Open 3.14.12

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I finally made it to the practice courts today. There was a little more mystery today as to who would be practicing when because the screens showing the practice sessions were not giving complete information. It was nice, however, to get to stumble upon Rafael Nadal practicing without every seat around the courts filled an hour in advance. It reminded me of the tournament five years ago when they didn’t announce the practice schedule.
My morning started out with Feliciano Lopez, Sam Stosur, Ana Ivanovic practicing. Petra Kvitova was also practicing with Yanina Wickmayer. It was a pretty intimate feel on court as no one was really watching them. Richard Gasquet and Grigor Dimitrov were on a practice court next to Jo Wilfried Tsonga and Julien Benneteau. Again, the malfunctioning practice schedule really helped out as the courts were fairly empty.
To my surprise, forty minutes after play began, Novak Djokovic was already a set up on Pablo Andujar. To go from a 0-6 thumping to a 7-6 victory in the second set was quite impressive from Andujar. Nevertheless, Djokovic showed why he’s the number one player in the world, winning the third set.
Meanwhile, Rafael Nadal had a quieter practice session at least until Djokovic won. Isner made quick work of Matthew Ebden while Sam Querry warmed up for their match later that day. Gael Monfils was also on court playing four-square soccer while Gasquet played actual soccer on the field. The entire French contingent would have a soccer showdown later in the evening on the field.
Victoria Azarenka took apart Agnieska Radwanska. Rafael Nadal also had a strong match against Alexandr Dolgopolov. I expected Dolgopolov to give Nadal more trouble, but Rafael held pretty strong as Alexandr made many unforced errors.
Sam Querry and John Isner went the distance Richard Gasquet and Paul Hanley and come out with a win as Roger Federer went a set down to Thomaz Bellucci. Federer held back and won as did Gilles Simon, who had a hard fought victory against Ryan Harrison. The score line in the third set didn’t do justice to how hard Harrison fought, but Simon deserved the victory.
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