Azarenka Downs Kerber to Reach Miami Finals

Victoria Azarenka continued her March onslaught on Thursday night, moving past Australian Open champion and second-seed Angelique Kerber 6-2, 7-5 to advance to the Miami Open final.

The match got off to a shaky start for both players, with the first three games seeing breaks of serve. Azarenka finally broke through with a hold to open up a 3-1 advantage, and followed it up with a break and a hold to build a commanding 5-1 advantage.

After Kerber held, Azarenka closed out the set with a hold of serve.

The second set also saw both players struggle with their serve. At one point, there were five straight breaks of serve, and it gave Azarenka a chance to serve out the match at 5-4.

But the Belarusian coughed up that chance with a couple of double faults which allowed Kerber to break. Kerber’s serve continued to struggle though, and she was immediately broken back, and Azarenka would serve out the match at 6-5 to move into the final.

“I stayed very strong in the end,” said Azarenka. “She’s such an amazing player. She got to so many balls; sometimes I just had to watch them. But I’m glad I kept pushing.”

Azarenka will square off against Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova. The 15th seeded Kuznetsova defeated 19th seeded Swiss Timea Bacsinszky 7-5, 6-3.

Kuznetsova saved 12 of the 14 break points she faced to return the final of the tournament she won 10 years ago in 2006.

“We haven’t played each other in a while but I think we know each other pretty well,” Azarenka said of Kuznetsova. “The last time we played we were both in different stages of our career so it’s interesting to see us coming back and playing such a high level of tennis. It’s gonna be tough but I’m looking forward to this challenge.”