VIC-TORY: Top seed Victoria Azarenka celebrates after licking defending champ Sam Stosur yesterday. (
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A good snapshot of the state of women’s tennis came Tuesday afternoon at Arthur Ashe Stadium, where the No. 1 seed took on the defending U.S. Open champion in a match that went to a dramatic third-set tiebreaker — and the biggest story was how it was going to affect Serena Williams.
Victoria Azarenka, the top-ranked player in the world, beat Sam Stosur, the reigning champ, 6-1, 4-6, 7-6 (5), in 2 hours and 23 minutes, all broken up by a rain delay of about an hour.
“The quality of tennis was really high,” Azarenka said, “because it could [have gone] either way.”
Azarenka moved into the semifinals to take on the winner of Maria Sharapova-Marion Bartoli, which was delayed on Ashe late yesterday afternoon. All three players — Azarenka, Sharapova and Bartoli — have been career patsies for Serena, who looks to plow through Ana Ivanovic tomorrow and then through the winner of the Sara Errani-Roberta Vinci quarterfinal en route to the finals.
“Oh, I think she’s going to be very tough to meet,” said Stosur, who beat Serena in the finals here last year in straight sets. “Victoria played really well today, so you can’t discount anyone. I think going on form before this event and so far, it’s very hard to go past [Serena].”
Azarenka has a 1-9 career record against Serena, while Sharapova is 2-9 with seven straight losses, including a rout in the finals of the London Olympics, and Bartoli is 1-3, most recently losing in the finals of the Stanford tournament last year.
“If she’s not the greatest,” Stosur said, “she’s definitely right up there with the first few.”
According to past performances, Stosur was the one with the best chance to stop Serena from cruising to a 15th Grand Slam title. The muscular 28-year-old Australian has a 4-6 career head-to-head record, but now won’t get a chance to become the first two-time women’s singles winner in the past eight Grand Slams, after Azarenka managed to win the points that mattered most.
“I think she played amazing,” Azarenka said about Stosur on the court afterward to a loud applause. “She made me play my best tennis. I was hoping for a few outs, but she kept hitting the lines and making those serves. I said, ‘Miss, miss,’ but she didn’t want to, I guess.”
Azarenka won her first Grand Slam at the Australian Open this year, and is looking to break a bit of the parity established in the women’s game as Serena recovered from a series of injuries. The 23-year-old from Belarus, who has four tournament titles this season, did a little dance on the court after the win that showed some personality dearly missing outside of the Williams sisters.
When told that the win guaranteed she would remain No. 1 after the tournament, Azarenka leaned into the microphone and said, “I don’t want to stop yet.”