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By Nick Georgandis
Photo Credit: Tony Chang

(March 18, 2011) Her outfits with those odd frills on the shoulders are still taking a while to get used to, but there's nothing wrong with Caroline Wozniacki's game these days.

The No. 1 player in the world charged into the BNP Paribas Open finals Friday night by dominating former No. 1 Maria Sharapova, 6-1, 6-2.

Sharapova, described by one commentator as "looking so very uncomfortable," also looked out of sorts, error-prone and like she was working, not playing tennis, converting an eye-popping 41 unforced errors.

She only seemed to play well when she had next to no hope of winning, such as a brilliantly-placed forehand to avoid match point after Wozniacki's high looping return left Sharapova a full spectrum of possible returns.

But those little flashes of brilliance from the former champ were far exceeded by the frequent balls hit into the net or well out of bounds.

The final point came on an ace by the blue-clad Wozniacki, who blew a pair of kisses to the crowd , applauded hand to racquet and smiled on her way off the court.

"I was very focused out there tonight," Wozniacki, who broke Sharapova six times, said. "She can hit some amazing shots, but she also gives you a few free points once in a while."



In the first semifinal of the day, France's Marion Bartoli easily handled Belgium's Yanina Wickmayer, 6-1, 6-3, needing less than 90 minutes to reach her first final in 18 months.

Bartoli lit up Wickmayer to the tune of 10 aces and in a match fulll of breaks, won a stunning 10 of them. In doing so, she becomes the first French woman to reach the BNP Paribas Open, and snapped a personal seven-match losing streak at the semifinal level.

“I'm very excited to be in the final, but also, I knew I could be there,” she said. “ It was just a matter of time between the Wimbledon final and getting to the final over here. Obviously I had everything in my game to be there, but it was just a matter of putting everything together at the good time and being tough on the court.”

 

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