Azarenka Races Into Linz Finals, Goerges Awaits

Top seed Victoria Azarenka raced into her ninth WTA final of the year in Linz. She'll take on a resurgent Julia Goerges who battled in three sets with Belgium's Kristen Flipkens. Results, orders of play, draws, and other information for the Generali Ladies Linz in Linz, Austria

By Tennis Now Staff

(October 13, 2012) -- Top seed Victoria Azarenka continued her impressive run this week at the Generali Ladies Linz event in Austria with yet another dominant performance in today's semifinals.

Though her opponent Irina-Camelia Begu pushed Azarenka to three sets in their last meeting at the Summer Games in London, today's match was all one-way traffic despite Begu trading early breaks of serve with the world No. 1 and almost leveling the first set. But when Azarenka climbed ahead to a 4-2 lead, everything started going the Belarusian’s way as she closed out the set 6-2.

From there Azarenka kept up her momentum with an early break to start the second set. A disastrous error-filled game from Begu allowed Azarenka to break at love for a 4-1 lead and soon Begu was facing match points against her. Begu saved one with a big serve, but it was a final error off of the Romanian's racquet that clinched a 6-2, 6-1 win for Azarenka.

Azarenka, who now enters her ninth final of the season, has only dropped eleven games all week and has now won 24 consecutive sets since losing in the U.S. Open finals to Serena Williams last month.

Goerges Overcomes Slow Start, Beats Flipkens

Julia Goerges, who has struggled all year since reaching the finals in Dubai, was hoping to reach her second final of 2012 as she took on the recently surging Kristen Flipkens of Belgium. But Goerges got off to a nervous, slow start allowing Flipkens to run away with the first set 6-1.

But the German got herself together in the second set while Flipkens began to offer up a few more errors on her side. A netted forehand from the Belgian gave Goerges an early break lead in the second set. Flipkens pushed Goerges in her next service game, but Goerges held for a 4-2 lead and went on to take the set.

An untimely double fault from Flipkens gave Goerges an early 2-1 lead in the final set and though Goerges's favorite forehand shot often produced errors, she hit enough winners with it to hang onto her lead for 5-3. An errant forehand from Flipkens set up the first match point that Goerges won with a forehand winner of her own to clinch a 1-6, 6-2, 6-3 win. Azarenka leads the head to head 3-1 over Goerges with their last meeting being at Indian Wells earlier this spring.

GENERALI LADIES LINZ

Linz, Austria

October 8-14, 2012

$220,000/International

Hard/Indoors

Tournament Website: Generali Ladies Linz | Live Scores | Draws | TV Schedule