Brisbane: Azarenka's Toe Trouble Sets Up Serena/Pavlyuchenkova Final

Victoria Azarenka was forced to withdraw from her semifinal with Serena Williams due to toe pain. Williams will now face Anastasia Pavyluchenkova in the finals.

By Erik Gudris

(January, 4, 2013) -- As the saying goes, beauty has its price. And no one learned that lesson harder than World No. 1 Victoria Azarenka.

The top seed at the Brisbane International was forced to withdraw at the last minute from her highly anticipated semifinal versus Serena Williams on Friday night. The cause? An infection she picked up after receiving a bad manicure while she was traveling in Thailand.

Azarenka suffered toe pain throughout her early round matches in Brisbane and though she was on antibiotics, she decided to pull out of her match against Williams in order to give her ample time to recover before the start of the Australian Open.

“Victoria has been nursing this injury for the past ten days and it has continued to deteriorate to a point where she is unable to take to the court tonight,” Cameron Pearson, tournament director said. "We wish her all the best with her recovery and we hope to see her in Melbourne to defend her Australian Open title.”

Pavyluchenkova Survives Rough Start to Reach Finals

Russia's Anastasia Pavyluchenkova overcame an error-filled first set as she came back to win in three sets against lucky loser Lesia Tsurenko in the second semi of the evening.

Tusrenko took the first set 6-4 with help from the Russian who sprayed balls long throughout the set. But after fighting off an early break point against her in the second set, Pavyluchenkova found her form and went on to cruise to a 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 victory.

Tomorrow's finals will feature Pavyluchenkova and Williams who both train at the Patrick Morautoglou academy. Williams leads the overall head to head 3-0 with their last meeting being at Madrid in 2012.