(October 27, 2012) -- With a combination of attacking first-strike tennis and using the slow court of the Sinan Erdem Dome to her advantage, Maria Sharapova earned a convincing straight sets win over top seed Victoria Azarenka to advance to tomorrow's finals at the TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships.
Sharapova early on in the match showed she was prepared to go for winners as soon as possible against Azarenka, who had won four of their previous five meetings this year including last month in the finals of Beijing. Both women traded breaks of serve before Sharapova consolidated a 4-2 lead with a curling backhand winner. Azarenka, who only hit four winners in the first set, settled into her game and forced Sharapova to serve for the set at 5-4. But a return error from Azarenka gave Sharapova the set 6-4.
Despite hitting 19 unforced errors in the first set, Sharapova didn't back down from her aggressive game plan in the second set. With stellar defense from the back of the court, Sharapova chased down an Azarenka smash and then hit a winner to break Azarenka right away. Azarenka's mediocre 51% first serve percentage for the match did her no favors as it led to a double fault that soon gave Sharapova a 3-0 lead.
Azarenka's last stand came in a marathon sixth game with Sharapova serving up 4-1. Azarenka timed several perfect return winners to set up break points only to produce an error to send the game back to deuce. On the ninth deuce, Sharapova finally held for 5-1 after yet another Azarenka error.
Though dealing with what appeared to a thigh strain late in the match, Azarenka managed to hold serve for 2-5 and force Sharapova to serve it out. But Sharapova had no problems doing so as she held at love by hitting a final big serve Azarenka couldn't handle. A delighted Sharapova celebrated a 6-4, 6-2 victory that sent her into tomorrow's finals.
"I lost to her the last few times and I'm really happy I put myself in the semifinals to play against her and try to improve and have a better result and I'm glad I was able to do that today," Sharapova said to Katrina Adams just after the match ended.
Sharapova, who remains undefeated for the week, will now face the other undefeated player of the event in Serena Williams who earlier trounced Agnieszka Radwanska 6-2, 6-1 in their semi.
When asked about what to expect in the finals, Sharapova said, "A difficult match. She's been on fire all this year so she's definitely the one to beat."
No. 1 Doubles Team Fall in Semis to Kirilenko/Petrova
Earlier in the day, the Italian duo of Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci were presented with an award for finishing the season ranked as the No. 1 doubles team for the year, with Vinci also ending the season as the No. 1 ranked doubles player.
However, their top status didn't help them in their semifinal match against the Russian team of Maria Kirilenko and Nadia Petrova. Despite Errani and Vinci running away with the first set 6-1, the Russian rallied to take the second and took control in the match tie-break to close out a 1-6, 6-3, 10-4 win.
Kirilenko and Petrova will now face the Czech team of Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka in tomorrow's finals.