Clijsters Loses and Djokovic Wins at Sony
Victoria Azarenka has advanced to her first semifinal of 2011by beating two-time champion Kim Clijsters, 6-3, 6-3 at the Sony Ericsson Open. Clijsters, who has been nursing a right shoulder injury since she won the Australian Open in January, had eight double-faults Wednesday night and held serve only three times in nine service games.
Azarenka, seeded eighth, earned the biggest victory of her career when she won Key Biscayne in 2009. Her next opponent will be the number three-seeded Vera Zvonareva, who beat the number nine seed Agnieszka Radwanska, 7-5, 6-3. Zvonareva owns a 6-2 advantage against Azarenka, but the two split their four meetings in 2010 – Azarenka won at the Australian Open and Doha, while Zvonareva won their latest two encounters in Montreal and the WTA Championships.
In the other women’s semifinal action, Andrea Petkovic will plays Maria Sharapova Thursday.
On the men’s side, Novak Djokovic extended his winning streak to 24 consecutive matches by beating Kevin Anderson 6-4, 6-2 in the quarter-finals. Djokovic, the number two seed, was never broken in the match. Djokovic won two Davis Cup matches in December, and his 22-0 record in 2011 is the best to begin a year since Ivan Lendl started 25-0 in 1986. His opponent in the semifinals will be American Mardy Fish, who beat sixth-seeded David Ferrer impressively, 7-5, 6-2.
The 29-year-old Fish will climb to at least 11th in the ATP rankings, a career best, in the next rankings. His good friend, Andy Roddick, will fall from eighth to 14th after losing his opening match last week. Fish, seeded 14th, dominated with his serve and took the lead for good when Ferrer hit back-to-back double-faults to lose the 11th game. At 29, Fish is into the Sony Ericsson semifinals for the first time.
