Serena wins all-Williams semi; Azarenka up next for crown

No. 11 seed Victoria Azarenka was going for her first Sony Ericsson Open final and possibly title of her career, and after she beat No. 8 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova, the Belarussian could be the first of her nationality to win the tournament, but first she will have to defeat No. 1 seed and rank Serena Williams, who fought hard against her older sister Venus, and won in three sets.

Azarenka had won the first set, but lost the second, and in the third, she got a break, and served for the match at 5-4, even having a match point at 40-30, but then Kuznetsova broke back to equal it, and again Azarenka got a break, where she would serve out the match, winning with a score of 63 26 75.

"The second set didn't go so well for me, but I still hung in there and played for every point, no matter what," Azarenka said. "When it got back to 5-all, I just thought that I had to keep going, no matter what. She played well on the match points, so it's not something I lost. I'm so happy I found the energy to fight at the end. It wasn't so much energy in the last few games, more like adrenaline. It was getting really, really tough to even walk through the last points."

Serena was fighting against her sister Venus, as she had won the first set, lost the second and fought to win the third. The match was over with a score of 64 36 63. Now the sisters are tied at 10-10 in head-to-head results.

"It's definitely good to even it up. I would love to be in the lead again," Serena said of the Williams head-to-head. "I was also thinking I'd love to remain No.1, so obviously I'm really excited about that. I think I was more happy about that than winning the match at the end. I'm really happy to get over this one."

"It was a well-fought match. My serve wasn't going as well as I wanted but she brought a lot of balls back and played really tough," Venus said afterwards. "When I come to a tournament I come to win. So I'm disappointed
right now. But I'm looking forward to working hard and doing better next time."

The only two meetings Azarenka and Serena had were both in the Australian Open, in 2008 and 2009, where Serena won both of them. But let's see. Things could change after the match.


Thursday, April 2, 2009

Singles - Semifinals
(1) Serena Williams (USA) d. (5) Venus Williams (USA) 64 36 63
(11) Victoria Azarenka (BLR) d. (8) Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS) 63 26 75