As eight becomes four at the Toray Pan Pacific Open on Thursday, with Victoria Azarenka the first player to book her spot into the semifinals of the $2-million Sony Ericsson WTA Tour tournament.
Azarenka, seeded No.8, ended the run of American qualifier Coco Vandeweghe, winning five consecutive games from 1-2 in the first set and six straight from 0-1 in the second set for a 6-2 6-1 win. Azarenka has now gone one round better than in her debut appearance here last year, where she was a quarterfinalist.
"I played her in an exhibition match in the summer, so I knew a little bit about her," Azarenka said of Vandeweghe. "She has a big serve, plus she had won a lot of matches here, so I knew it would be tough. My game plan worked well today. She started very well in the beginning but I was able to focus and be aggressive and I'm really excited to be in my first semifinal here in Tokyo."
Next for Azarenka will be either No.1 seed Caroline Wozniacki or No.6 seed Agnieszka Radwanska, who played later in the day.
Vandeweghe, just 18 and ranked No.172, was playing her second career quarterfinal, having made it to the final eight at San Diego in the summer. She had upset No.14 seed Aravane Rezai en route to her match-up with Azarenka.
Francesca Schiavone, the No.5 seed, was the second player into the semifinals, outlasting Kaia Kanepi in a tight three-setter, 7-5 4-6 7-5. Schiavone missed a crosscourt backhand on her first match point at 5-4 but closed the match out two games later, finishing it on a big serve that drew a Kanepi return into the net. The marathon match lasted three hours and nine minutes.
Next for Schiavone will be either No.2 seed Vera Zvonareva or No.7 seed Elena Dementieva, who played the last match of the day.
Azarenka, seeded No.8, ended the run of American qualifier Coco Vandeweghe, winning five consecutive games from 1-2 in the first set and six straight from 0-1 in the second set for a 6-2 6-1 win. Azarenka has now gone one round better than in her debut appearance here last year, where she was a quarterfinalist.
"I played her in an exhibition match in the summer, so I knew a little bit about her," Azarenka said of Vandeweghe. "She has a big serve, plus she had won a lot of matches here, so I knew it would be tough. My game plan worked well today. She started very well in the beginning but I was able to focus and be aggressive and I'm really excited to be in my first semifinal here in Tokyo."
Next for Azarenka will be either No.1 seed Caroline Wozniacki or No.6 seed Agnieszka Radwanska, who played later in the day.
Vandeweghe, just 18 and ranked No.172, was playing her second career quarterfinal, having made it to the final eight at San Diego in the summer. She had upset No.14 seed Aravane Rezai en route to her match-up with Azarenka.
Francesca Schiavone, the No.5 seed, was the second player into the semifinals, outlasting Kaia Kanepi in a tight three-setter, 7-5 4-6 7-5. Schiavone missed a crosscourt backhand on her first match point at 5-4 but closed the match out two games later, finishing it on a big serve that drew a Kanepi return into the net. The marathon match lasted three hours and nine minutes.
Next for Schiavone will be either No.2 seed Vera Zvonareva or No.7 seed Elena Dementieva, who played the last match of the day.
7 comments:
Surprise, surprise, Vera Z. choked.
I'm thinking Dementieva will be in the final. That annoying Italian thing won't have enough in the tank to pull a victory in the semis.
"Captain" are you rooting against "The Big Bunny" so she can not reach the number one ranking? I see her winning against Azarenka, although IMO Azarenka is a better player than "The Big Bunny" but it seems that "The Bunny" has a good record against Azarenka.
A Dementieva/Bunny final would be a good match. Both players go at each other when they meet.
Ahaha, yeah huge suprise!
It should be an intresting re-match of the French Open semi final. But I do see Dementieva winning this one!
And yes I am! Ahaha so I am going to Azarenka this time!
I just caught the third set of The Bunny/Azarenka. Talk about going to sleep in the third set for both players. I was watching this match over the net, AWFUL feed! How awful you say? Well the stream was choppy and at times the monitor would turn all blue. But the last straw was at match point. Azarenka made a challenge and won the challenge, next thing I knew the screen goes blue. When I get the feed back, game over! This just sucked.
Oh how awful! That must have been horrible and very frustraiting! I must admit I have never watched live streaming, I have just done live score updates instead, I find it easier!
And now it all comes down to Dementieva, if she wins, Serena, Kim and Vera need to wait atleast another week to qualify.
I'm taking Dementieva over The Big Bunny. It is the revenge factor, avenging the loss of New Haven.
Yes you are right "Captain' it was very frustrating. I'll just laugh it off this time.
Im going Dementieva for obvious reasons, ahaha!
And Carlos Im sorry, but all of next week I have exams so not sure how much time I will be spending blogging, If any atall! But I will be back soon!
Best of luck in your finals! I'll check the week after next.
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