Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka advance to the Internazionali BNL d’Italia final

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Wilson Blade 9

Serena Williams extended her career-best winning streak to 23 matches, improved to 32-1 on clay since the start of 2012 and is now looking for her fourth consecutive title, after Miami, Charleston and Madrid. Her last obstacle is Victoria Azarenka, who does trail 2-11 in their head-to-head statistics, but she was the one who won their last meeting, the final of Doha in February 2013.

It was a quick semifinal victory for world No.1 Serena Williams over the upsetter of the tournament, Simona Halep, as the American finished the match 6-3 6-0, the only resistance coming from Halep early on when she broke for a 2-1 lead in the first set.

In the second semifinal, the third-seeded Azarenka defeated seventh seed Sara Errani, who will join the Top 5 in the rankings on Monday thus becoming only the second Italian ever to achieve that feat. After storming through the first set, allowing her opponent just a handful of points, Azarenka was made to work in the second set and even had Errani serving for the set at 5-4, but eventually the Belarusian managed to close it out in straights 6-0 7-5. (via WTA Tour, photos: sr_cranks)

3 COMMENTS

  1. I saw the match and what Serena showed was a pure domination. I think that she now just plays for fun and it makes her a lot stronger.

  2. Can’t say I’m too surprised to see Serena doing what she does best… I have a question about the Williams sisters (which may be better suited for Yahoo! Answers): Have they ever played doubles on the same team? If so, did they dominate as expected? If not, why not?!!

    That’s all I’ve got! Thanks!

  3. Sarah, they’ve played doubles together many times and won Grand Slam titles and the Olympics.

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