TheSportsCampus

Lets Get LOUD could well be the theme song for Saturday's Women's Final at the Australian Open as the two Shrieking Violets of the WTA Tour - Victoria Azarenka and Maria Sharapova set up a thrilling finale to this year's event with some thoroughly enterprising semi-final wins. Both matches were well worth the admission money on their own account with Azarenka beating the defending champion Kim Clijsters in three sets to advance to her maiden Grand Slam final, while Sharapova also took three sets to win her Wimbledon Final rematch against a very talented Petra Kvitova.

Azarenka - Clijsters were up first on Rod Laver Arena, and though the quality of play was not as spectacular as what followed, there was no shortage of class on either side of the court. In fact, Kim actually won a point more than Victoria in the final reckoning, yet ended up on the losing side on what is likely to be her last Australian Open. An early break in favour of the Belarusian was all that separated the women in a closely fought opening set. Kim had her chances, but fluffed four break point opportunities to drop the opening set 6-4.

The Belgian though bounced back strongly in a second set where Victoria did virtually nothing right. Azarenka held serve just once in the set as her first serve percentage plummeted to the mid 30s, and her unforced error count at 16 was more than the points she won in the set!

After racing through the second set in just over half-an-hour, the two women got down to business at the start of the third set, and this time it was Clijsters who was making the bulk of the errors. Azarenka tightened up her serve, but still dropped it twice. However, Kim's crippling mistakes in what was turning into a very nervy encounter allowed Victoria to stay a break ahead right through.

Azarenka finally achieved her destined place in Saturday's showpiece, managing to lift what she described felt like 200 kilogram hands while serving for the match to close out this nerve-wracking encounter 6-4, 1-6, 6-3. This will be Azarenka's first ever Grand Slam final, though she rather disappointingly been on the losing end of three Doubles Finals, including twice here at Melbourne Park. The 22-year old follows in the footsteps of Natasha Zvereva to become the second Belarusian ever to advance to a Grand Slam final. Zvereva sadly went down 6-0, 6-0 to Steffi Graf in that historic 1988 final, the year an impregnable Steffi captured the Golden Slam.

Having not lost a match so far this year, Azarenka may instead derive inspiration from men's no.1 Novak Djokovic, and attempt to take her undefeated streak one step further this Saturday.

Standing in Azarenka's path to eternal glory is 2008 champion Maria Sharapova. The Russian showed that there was absolutely no replacement for experience as she dug out a hard fought 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 win over Czech left-hander Petra Kvitova.

The world no.2 had beaten Sharapova in the Wimbledon final last season to capture her maiden Grand Slam title, but was comprehensively outplayed in the opening set, dropping serve thrice en route to losing it 6-2 in just 36 minutes. Kvitova served a 70% in the first set, but the returns were just coming back at her a lot harder and Sharapova was able to dominate play right from the off.

The second set though was a completely different ball game with Kvitova not giving Sharapova even a look on her serve, and earning 4 chances to break the Russian. Kvitova took just one of those, but it was enough to level the match at a set apiece.

With the momentum firmly in her favour, the match was Kvitova's to lose, and she did as her inability to take her chances coupled with a growing frustration building up inside her allowed the mentally stronger Russian to steal a win she probably shouldn't have. Petra took just 1 of her 5 break point chances and was a disappointing 3 from 14 for the match, while Sharapova seized every chance that came her way.

A pair of early breaks were traded with Kvitova going up 2-1, only for Sharapova to break right back. Kvitova had looks at the Sharapova serve at 15-40, and 0-30 points right through the rest of the set only for the Russian to refuse to lose. Serving at 4-5 to stay in the match, an inopportune double fault from Kvitova gave Sharapova a window of opportunity, and the Russian took it with both hands to break serve and seal what was looking like an unlikely win.

Sharapova and Azarenka have faced each other 6 times previously and are deadlocked at 3 wins apiece. To make things even more perfect, they each picked up a win over the other last year. Interestingly, two of Azarenka's triumphs have come in finals, while Maria did win their last meeting on the red clay of Rome, though Victoria did have to retire from that match midway through the second set due to injury. Their 4 meetings on hard courts are also split 50-50, making it hard to choose a winner. An exciting (and loud) final awaits on Saturday! · ··

Singles - Semifinals
(4) Maria Sharapova (RUS) d. (2) Petra Kvitova (CZE) 62 36 64
(3) Victoria Azarenka (BLR) d. (11) Kim Clijsters (BEL) 64 16 63

File Photograph Copyright: Porsche Tennis Grand Prix