STUTTGART: World No 1 Victoria Azarenka booked her place in the final of the Stuttgart WTA clay-court tournament with a 6-1, 6-3 semi-final win over Agnieszka Radwanska yesterday.
With Victoria, Maria Sharapova, Petra Kvitova and Radwanska all in yesterday's semi-finals, this was the first time since Wimbledon in 2009 that the world's top four players had reached the last four at a WTA tournament.
"It's excellent for women's tennis to have all of the world's top four players in the semi-finals," beamed Victoria after her victory.
This is the fifth time this year Victoria has beaten Agnieszka after seeing off the World No 4 on hard-court in Sydney, at the Australian Open, in Doha and at Indian Wells.
It was the pair's first meeting on clay, but Victoria needed just 24 minutes to blitz Agnieszka to take the first set as the Polish number one managed just 11 points.
In the second set the Belarusian kept up the pressure with an impressive selection of shots.
Despite claiming her tenth overall victory over Agnieszka in just 77 minutes, Victoria insisted it had been far from easy.
"I think she is such a good player that I have to step up to beat her, I think she brings the best out of my game," said Victoria.
"We had some good rallies and I was just trying to stay in control of the game."
In the other semi-final, World No 2 Maria took on Wimbledon champion and World No 3 Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic for a place in today's final. AFP
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