In Omair‘s statistical preview of the Australian Open quarterfinal between Victoria Azarenka and Agnieszka Radwanska the numbers were more on Radwanska’s side, however, the Pole lost 6-7(0) 6-0 6-2. Omair would now like to have a closer look at what happened there.
When Victoria Azarenka entered the Rod Laver Arena today, she had something going on in her mind, her possibility of overtaking the top spot from Caroline Wozniacki, and that thing seemed to affect her in the first set tiebreak where she could not win a single point against Agnieszka Radwanska. But from then on, it was all Azarenka and she solidified her status as title contender with this win.
Radwanska walked on to the Rod Laver Arena today with a mission of her own, she wanted to make it fifth time lucky and enter into her first Grand Slam semifinal match and it seemed that she would, after the first set. But from then on Radwanska could not keep that level and lost to the red hot Azarenka.
Radwanska, just like Wozniacki in her quarterfinal, entered the match with cleaner stats, and Azarenka, just like Kim Clijsters, entered the match with not so good stats, but both Clijsters and Azarenka emerged out of their matches as the cleaner players and winners.
AGNIESZKA RADWANSKA STATS
Radwanska entered the match with 75% points won on her first serves when they landed in and her first serve percentage did not flop, but her winning percentage on the first serve dropped dramatically, and to add to that so did her winning percentage on second serves. You can never win a match against Azarenka by winning just 29% of your second serves or 47% of your first serves. As if that was not enough, Radwanska entered the match with a positive winner-UE differential of 27, but came out of the match with a negative 15 winner-UE differential. Radwanska will have to wait for the next Grand Slam to see if she can manage to make it to the semifinals.
VICTORIA AZARENKA STATS
Azarenka’s winning percentage on her first serve dropped by a whopping 23%, but she was aggressive enough to force errors from the Polish No.1. If we look at Azarenka’s winners-UE differential, she came out as the cleaner one with a positive differential of 1 as compared to Radwanska’s negative 15. However, what the numbers do not tell us is that Azarenka remained cool and calm even after she lost the first set. That was the major turning point for Azarenka.
For now on Azarenka lives to fight for a dream to reach the top spot in the WTA rankings and she will be battling it out with Clijsters on Thursday in what promises to be a great match. (photos: Ralf Reinecke, © Neal Trousdale)
No doubt it is true, and I hope we have some treat for the semi-finals, judging from their performances so far, the semi-finals promise to be epic battles.
Considering the inconsistant performances in the women’s game at the moment it is remarkable that we have 3 of the top 4 seeds through to the semi finals.