First of all, I'm sorry for not having covered the semifinals, but I have a good excuse, I was a maid of honor at a friend's wedding yesterday . Recovering from yesterday's wild celebrations, I was able to relax with the final action in Indian Wells, featuring Maria Sharapova and Caroline Wozniacki. The Dane's last Premier Mandatory final was at the same tournament two years ago and then she went all the way to the title, even beating Sharapova in the semis, but things have since changed considerably and the Russian is way stronger now, overpowering Wozniacki 6-2 6-2 in the title match.

Sharapova recorded 33 winners to Wozniacki's two and that hard-hitting and accuracy brought her a break to love at the very beginning of the match and a straightforward victory, without dropping her own serve, in one hour and 21 minutes. Naturally, Sharapova's count of unforced errors was greater than Wozniacki's, 25 to 19, but her dominance in winner's was insurmountable.

After a first-round bye, Sharapova beat Francesca Schiavone, Carla Suarez Navarro, Lara Arruabarrena, Sara Errani, Maria Kirilenko and finally Wozniacki, all in straight sets, and lifted her 28th career champion's trophy and first this season. She will ascend to No.2 in the rankings, pushing Victoria Azarenka to the third position. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

A very bad day for women’s tennis at Indian Wells today – first Samantha Stosur withdrew with a right calf injury and now top seed Victoria Azarenka is out with a right ankle injury. Angelique Kerber and Caroline Wozniacki are profiting on the withdrawals, reaching the semis with walkovers. The other semifinal features two Russian Marias, Kirilenko and Sharapova.

Stosur expressed her disappointment in the press conference:

I hurt my right calf muscle in the last game of my match against Mona Barthel when I was serving for the match, so I don’t know if you can get any more unlucky than that… I think this is only the second time I’ve ever pulled out of a match in my career, and unfortunately there isn’t anything I can do about it.

Here’s what Azarenka, undefeated in 17 matches this season, said about her unwelcome situation:

I tried absolutely everything I could do, but I have been advised by the doctor, by my own team, that it’s just a very, very high risk already. I mean, it’s already really painful, but it’s very high risk to make it much worse. It’s a right foot injury, and there is a big inflammation in both and tendinitis.

(interviews: BNP Paribas Open, photos: © Neal Trousdale)

After taking out third seed Agnieszka Radwanska in the fourth round of the BNP Paribas Open, Maria Kirilenko upset fifth seed Petra Kvitova in the quarterfinals, switching from Radwanska’s long rallies to Kvitova’s power game, thus recording two Top 10 victories in a single tournament for the first time in her career and making the biggest semifinal of her life.

The 13th-seeded Kirilenko initially took a 4-2 lead, before falling to Kvitova’s power and winners to trail 4-6 2-4. The Czech then lost her range and gave away the second set by hitting four straight double faults while serving to stay in it and in the third set Kirilenko came out on top to finally win 4-6 6-4 6-3, despite problems with her knee in the first set.

We will have an all-Russian Indian Wells semifinal, as second seed Maria Sharapova later advanced with a tight 7-6(6) 6-2 victory over sixth seed Sara Errani which featured a 82-minute first set. Playing her third tournament of the season, Sharapova is in her third 2013 semifinal. (source: WTA Tour, photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Despite complaining that her ankle has been bothering her for a while, top seed Victoria Azarenka, unbeaten in 17 matches this season, remained on course in her title defense at the BNP Paribas Open by cruising into the last eight with a 6-3 6-1 victory over Urszula Radwanska, while Urszula's more successful sister Agnieszka Radwanska was the only upset of the day, as the third seed fell to seed No.13 Maria Kirilenko. After quickly losing the first set, Agnieszka fought back to win the second and go 3-1 up in the third, before Kirilenko won four straight games for a 5-3 lead and a 6-1 4-6 7-5 victory after a small slump.

Maria Sharapova won a close opening set against Lara Arruabarrena-Vecino, before storming through the second in just 22 minutes for a 7-5 6-0 victory, Angelique Kerber defeated Garbine Muguruza 6-4 7-5, Petra Kvitova advanced with a comfortable 6-2 6-3 win over fellow Czech Klara Zakopalova, Sara Errani took out Marion Bartoli 6-3 6-2, Samantha Stosur was better than Mona Barthel 4-6 6-2 6-3 and Caroline Wozniacki beat Nadia Petrova 7-6(3) 6-3 in the fourth round.

Quarterfinal pairs: Victoria Azarenka [1] vs. Caroline Wozniacki [8], Angelique Kerber [4] vs. Samantha Stosur [7], Petra Kvitova [5] vs. Maria Kirilenko [13] and Sara Errani [6] vs. Maria Sharapova [2]. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Top seed Victoria Azarenka, who crushed Maria Sharapova in last year’s Indian Wells final, couldn’t find her rhythm in the beginning of her third-round meeting with Kirsten Flipkens, but in the end came out strong by taking all of her opponent’s serves in the third set to win 3-6 6-3 6-0. Her rival in the fourth round will be Urszula Radwanska, who earlier defeated Jamie Hampton 6-0 7-6(4).

Fourth seed Angelique Kerber beat seed No.30 Yanina Wickmayer 6-1 7-6(4), but only after recovering from 1-4 down in the second set, thanks to her coach’s reminder to focus on their pre-match strategy, by winning five of the next seven games and then the tiebreak. Garbine Muguruza, who swept past Magdalena Rybarikova 6-4 6-0, will be Kerber’s fourth-round opponent. Read more »