STANFORD, CALIF. — Victoria Azarenka doesn’t care much for beer. She says she’s much more likely to reach for a glass of champagne. But a celebratory toast wasn’t what she had in mind on her 21st birthday. A semifinal win over the top-seeded Sam Stosur at the Bank of the West Classic would suffice. And the Belarusian got exactly what she wanted — an uneventful 6-2, 6-3 win over the No. 5-ranked Aussie and a trip to the final.
Happy birthday, Vika. (We’ll indulge in a libation on your behalf.)
Stosur came into the match having logged more semifinal appearances in 2010 than any other player on the WTA Tour (6) but had never defeated Azarenka. In fact, she had never taken a set off Azarenka in their three previous head-to-heads.
And it would stay that way.
The clean-hitting, super-shrieking Azarenka asserted her return game early to score three breaks of serve in the first set, and capitalized on 17 first-set errors from Stosur, who finished with 33 on the day. Then, even at 2-2 in the second, Azarenka stepped up and put away a midcourt backhand for the only other break she would need. But she would get another. Serving to stay in the match trailing 5-3, Stosur again found herself on the run at 30-15 and three consecutive backhands into the net later she handed the break and the match to her No. 18-ranked opponent.
“I was very good on the return, putting a lot of pressure on her,” said Azarenka, who is also still alive in the doubles draw with partner Maria Kirilenko. “I was very solid on the break points and kept holding my serve. Wins like this always give you confidence. She’s a great player. She’s been having amazing results throughout this year and I’m happy I could beat her when she’s in this form.”
Stosur, who in June reached her first-ever Slam final at Roland Garros (where she fell to Italy’s Francesca Schiavone 6-4, 7-6(2)), is certainly a more complete, more consistent player than at any point in her career, but Azarenka’s relentless baseline game proved too much for the 26-year-old, who was in new territory as a top seed for the first time in her 11-year pro career.
“She definitely punished me when I didn’t put a good serve in the court,” said Stosur, who won a mere 55 percent (23 of 42) of her first serve points. “It wasn’t my best day and she played quite well, but I still felt like I had a few chance to get myself back in it. When I had those, I didn’t come up with the goods.”
All three of Azarenka’s career titles have come on hard courts. The birthday girl hopes to add a fourth on Sunday when she faces the winner of the Maria Sharapova vs. Agnieszka Radwanska semifinal. Her last title came in Miami in 2009, when she crushed Serena Williams in the final 6-3, 6-1.
SATURDAY NOTEBOOK
A WISE OBSERVATION: The San Francisco Chronicle’s Rusty Simmons said Belarusian beauty Victoria Azarenka‘s distinct grunts sound like “prolonged hoots from a pained owl.”
WHAT DAY IS IT ANYWAY?: With the Maria Sharapova vs. Elena Dementieva three-set Bank of the West Classic quarterfinal lingering beyond 10:45 p.m., ESPN2’s Mary Carillo teased, “Coming up after the match is ‘Baseball Tonight,’ which should be ‘Baseball Tomorrow.'”
NICKNAMES YOU HOPE DON’T STICK: During his tough 6-2, 3-6, 7-6(4) win over Rainer Schuettler at the Farmers Classic, a frustrated Sam Querrey dubbed himself “Debbie Downer” and a “mental headcase.”
THE NUMBERS
15: Double faults for Maria Sharapova in her 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 quarterfinal win over Elena Dementieva.
1: Top-10 win for Maria Sharapova (who on Friday ousted No. 6 Elena Dementieva at Stanford) since October 2009, when she topped then-No. 9-ranked Victoria Azarenka in Beijing.
6-3: Maria Sharapova‘s record versus top-10 opponents since returning from shoulder surgery in May 2009.
