Despite complaining that her ankle has been bothering her for a while, top seed Victoria Azarenka, unbeaten in 17 matches this season, remained on course in her title defense at the BNP Paribas Open by cruising into the last eight with a 6-3 6-1 victory over Urszula Radwanska, while Urszula’s more successful sister Agnieszka Radwanska was the only upset of the day, as the third seed fell to seed No.13 Maria Kirilenko. After quickly losing the first set, Agnieszka fought back to win the second and go 3-1 up in the third, before Kirilenko won four straight games for a 5-3 lead and a 6-1 4-6 7-5 victory after a small slump.
Maria Sharapova won a close opening set against Lara Arruabarrena-Vecino, before storming through the second in just 22 minutes for a 7-5 6-0 victory, Angelique Kerber defeated Garbine Muguruza 6-4 7-5, Petra Kvitova advanced with a comfortable 6-2 6-3 win over fellow Czech Klara Zakopalova, Sara Errani took out Marion Bartoli 6-3 6-2, Samantha Stosur was better than Mona Barthel 4-6 6-2 6-3 and Caroline Wozniacki beat Nadia Petrova 7-6(3) 6-3 in the fourth round.
Quarterfinal pairs: Victoria Azarenka [1] vs. Caroline Wozniacki [8], Angelique Kerber [4] vs. Samantha Stosur [7], Petra Kvitova [5] vs. Maria Kirilenko [13] and Sara Errani [6] vs. Maria Sharapova [2]. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)
Exciting developments indeed. Personally, I was well pleased to see Urszula Rad. get as far as she did, and happy that if Aga had to go out, at least she went out to Kvitova, whom I’ve always also admired. Apart from Caro/Vika, I’m also looking forward to seeing Errani and Sharapova give each other a right pasting.
I’d like to see Kvitova make it to the final, although I suspect it’ll be a battle of the Noisemakers again.
Eh, there goes half of my predictions. 😀
Pretty impressive that 7 of the top 8 seeds make it through to the quarter-finals. I thought the Kerber/Stosur quarter would be riddled by upsets but both have found some solid form in Indian Wells.
All the quarter-finals look intriguing, but the highlight will be Azarenka/Wozniacki, who haven’t played each other for two years.