Belorussian Victoria Azarenka defeated world No.8 Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia 6-3 2-6 7-5 in the Sony Ericsson Open semifinals and is now one victory away from winning her third WTA singles title, and at the same time her third WTA singles title of the season (the first two are Brisbane and Memphis).

"It's really big, because it's first final in such a big tournament for me. It's the biggest moment, I would say, in my career," said Azarenka after reaching her first Premier final on the WTA Tour.

The 2006 Sony Ericsson Open champion Kuznetsova, who won her last title in August 2007 at New Haven, was contesting her first semifinal in 2009.

The 19-year-old Azarenka, the fresh member of the Top 10, will face one of the Williams sisters in the Miami final. (source: Sony Ericsson Open, photo: Ralf Reinecke)

Eighth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova was the first to enter the semifinals of the Sony Ericsson Open by overcoming Danish 13th seed Caroline Wozniacki 6-4 6-7(5) 6-1.

The 2006 Miami titlist defeated Wozniacki in 2 hours 54 minutes and will next play the winner of the Victoria Azarenka vs. Samantha Stosur quarterfinal, set to take place later on Tuesday.

Other quarterfinalists will take the courts on Wednesday. They include Serena Williams against Li Na and Venus Williams against Iveta Benesova. (photo by our reader Jacob)

Sixth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova, who has reached the final at Indian Wells for the last two years, fell in the second round to wildcard Urszula Radwanska. Top seed Dinara Safina survived a tough test before beating Tsvetana Pironkova.

Kuznetsova was overpowered by the world No.107 Radwanska 6-2 4-6 6-3, despite a comeback in the second set.

Safina saved multiple set points in the first-set tiebreak before easing through the second set and beating the Bulgarian world No.50 7-6(8) 6-2. Safina will meet seed No.28 Shuai Peng of China in the third round of the BNP Paribas Open.

Safina, ranked 2nd in the world, can replace Serena Williams atop the WTA Tour rankings by reaching the Indian Wells final, as Williams is not playing the tournament. (sources: ESPN, Reuters, photo by our reader Jacob)

Only the second day of the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships is in progress, and we have already seen many interesting results.

The latest one saw the seventh seed Svetlana Kuznetsova falling to fellow Russian Elena Vesnina, failing to win even one game in the deciding set. Final score of this second-round match was 6-4 3-6 6-0.

Vesnina had defeated China’s Li Na in the first round, in three sets, too: 1-6 6-4 6-4.

The second day of the tournament is not over yet, but ninth seed Agnieszka Radwanska and 15th seed Anna Chakvetadze said goodbye in the first round. Agnieszka lost to her sister Urszula Radwanska 6-4 6-3, while Anna lost to world No.74 Ayumi Morita 7-5 6-2. Morita is the lucky loser who entered the tournament with Israeli Shahar Peer being denied a visa for the United Arab Emirates.

No other seeds have fallen on day 2 yet, although one interesting matchup is in progress at the moment. Ana Ivanovic is playing Alisa Kleybanova, the Russian who upset herin the Australian Open third round last month.

Let’s also mention that Agnes Szavay and Maria Kirilenko lost in the first round yet again. Their defeats happened on day 1, on Sunday. (photo: vesnina-elena.com)

Serena Williams crashed the Russians' party and put an end to the possibility of a Russian full house in the Australian Open semifinals by coming back from a set down to defeat Svetlana Kuznetsova.

Eighth seed Kuznetsova was leading 7-5 5-3, but then Williams’ well-known aggression returned and she won 10 of the last 11 games of the match, earning a 5-7 7-5 6-1 victory.

Williams, the second seed, joins Olympic singles medalists Dinara Safina, Elena Dementieva and Vera Zvonareva in the final four. Her next opponent will be Dementieva, who earlier beat Carla Suarez Navarro 6-2 6-2. (photo by our reader Jacob)